The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday allotted ‘dhal talwar’ or ‘two swords and a shield as its symbol to the Eknath Shinde camp that was given the name Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena a day ago.
The group, led by the Maharashtra chief minister, submitted three options earlier in the day as ordered the polling body, following which the EC issued its order and uploaded it on the website.
A day ago, the polling body had rejected all the three options that the Shinde faction had suggested as choices for poll symbols – ‘rising sun’, ‘trident’ and ‘mace’ – and asked it to submit fresh options by Tuesday.
Last week, the Election Commission had frozen the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol for an interim period following a feud between the two Sena factions – one led by Uddhav Thackeray and the other by Shinde. It also asked the two sides not to use the name ‘Shiv Sena’.
On Monday, the EC allotted ‘ShivSena – Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’ as the party name for the Thackeray faction, and ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’ (Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena) as the name for the Eknath Shinde group of the party.
The polling body has allotted the flaming torch or ‘mashaal’ as the election symbol for the group headed by Thackeray.
