Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde said the Election Commission’s allotment of name ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’ to his faction is a victory of the strong Hindutva views of late Balasaheb Thackeray.
“Finally the victory of Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray’s Hindutva ideals. We are the inheritors of his ideals,” Shinde’s tweet, roughly translated from Marathi, read.
On Monday, the Election Commission named ‘ShivSena – Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ the Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray and ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’ for the Shinde faction.
In a statement, Shinde said, “We have always taken a stand that this is the party of Balasaheb. I am happy to get this name. We thank the ECI.”
The Maharashtra chief minister added however, he was unhappy that the Sena’s ‘bow and arrow’ symbol was not given to his group though they had merit. “We still think that the ECI should consider the merit of our demand. We have the majority in the legislative as well as organisational wing. As such, the bow and arrow symbol should be given to us.”
The Election Commission okayed the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) as the election symbol to the Thackeray faction, while the Shinde group was asked to submit a fresh list of three symbols by 10am on Tuesday.
Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray later said, “We will take the name and new symbol of the party to the people. I am sure we will win the coming elections.” The Thackeray faction has also released a video after getting the new symbol.
This latest dispute between the two Shiv Sena factions came weeks ahead of the Andheri East Assembly bypolls.
In June this year, Eknath Shinde led a rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray leading to the latter’s resignation as Maharashtra chief minister.
Shinde claimed that while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress (allies in the Thackeray government) were growing stronger in the alliance, the Shiv Sena, which is heading the governing bloc, was getting systematically weakened.
As many as 40 MLAs of Sena rebelled with Shinde, which led to the collapse of the MVA-led state government. The Shinde faction joined hands with the BJP to form the new government with Eknath Shinde as chief minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis as the deputy chief minister.