The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has written a four-page letter to the Election Commission (EC) alleging bias, favouritism and foul play by the poll body while allocating party symbols and names to the warring factions of the Shiv Sena after it froze the symbol of the original party last week.
“Several communications and actions of the EC have given rise to a serious apprehension of bias in the mind of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray,” a letter written by Thackeray’s advocate, Vivek Singh, says.
The missive raises several points. Harking back to the initial petition filed by Shinde on July 19, it states that despite a caveat being filed by Thackeray, the EC did not give him a copy of Shinde’s petition till July 22. Moreover, the petition was made available without attaching the relevant documents and annexures. “It was against the principles of natural justice and fair play expected, as Thackeray had to give a reply to the petition. The commission did not ask Shinde to serve the documents in time despite repeated requests. On the contrary, the EC asked Thackeray to hand over the copy of the documents submitted to the poll body to Shinde with immediate effect,” the letter states.
The petition being referred to is the one filed by Shinde before the EC claiming the name and symbol of the Shiv Sena after the split in the party in June. The split led to the petitions in the Supreme Court and poll body on various issues, including the battle over the ownership of the original party name and election symbol.
The letter also states that even after Thackeray submitted a reply to the EC on October 7, the poll body wrote back, saying the reply had yet to be received. “Despite the request to the EC that Thackeray should be given a fair opportunity to prove the frivolity of the claim by Shinde (of ownership of the original Shiv Sena), the EC went ahead in passing the order on October 8, violating the principle of natural justice. The order was passed on the pretext of the Andheri by-poll despite the fact that the Shinde camp was not fighting the poll. This clearly shows that unfair treatment was meted out to Thackeray,” the letter says.
Thackeray has also questioned why his letter to the EC giving his party’s three options for symbols and names was uploaded on the EC website immediately after submission. This gave an unfair advantage to the Shinde camp, as it got the information… and resulted in the Shinde camp “very tellingly” giving identical options given for the name and symbol, says the letter. It adds that while the symbol allotted to the Shinde camp was published with a large picture of the symbol on the website, the symbol allotted to Thackeray had no such pictorial representation.
The letter concludes with a request for clarity from the EC on the points raised by the respondent (Thackeray) so that “his fears may be allayed”.
No reaction to Thackeray’s letter was forthcoming from the Shinde faction as well as the EC.