Uddhav Thackeray moves SC against EC's decision; Team Shinde takes over Vidhan Bhavan Sena office

The Uddhav Thackeray faction approached Supreme Court on Monday, challenging the Election Commission's decision to recognise the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and award it the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol. Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde took over the Sena office at Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai on Monday morning.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction approached the Supreme Court on Monday, February 20, challenging the Election Commission's decision to recognise the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and award it the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi raised the matter before a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, requesting that the Thackeray-led Sena faction's petition be heard sooner. However, the CJI refused to pass any order. The bench said, "The rule applies to all, whether on the left, right, or centre. Come back tomorrow using the proper procedure."

Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde took over the party office at Vidhan Bhawan in Mumbai on Monday morning after the Shinde-led faction received the Shiv Sena name and symbol. Previously, the office was closed due to a division in the Shiv Sena.

Shiv Sena's website, shivsena.in, was previously deleted, and its Twitter handle has been changed to ShivSena - Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray. The account no longer has the 'blue tick' that indicates a verified account because the handle was changed. Even though the Shiv Sena website is unavailable, the link is still visible on Shiv Sena UBT's Twitter profile page.

On Friday, the Election Commission recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and allotted them the 'bow and arrow' poll symbol. The Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the 'flaming torch' poll symbol assigned to it until the state assembly by-elections were completed.

The Commission said MLAs who supported Shinde received nearly 76 per cent of the votes cast in support of the Shiv Sena's 55 winning candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The MLAs from the Uddhav Thackeray faction received 23.5 per cent of the votes cast in favour of the Shiv Sena candidates, according to the three-member Commission.