Last Update: February 27, 2023, 23:48 IST
The factions of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray (right) and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde (left) are fighting a battle to stake claim to the Shiv Sena. (Image: News18)
Thackeray said he no longer has faith in the apex election body, saying it should be called the “Election Chuna Lagao Commission”. “Chuna Lagaan” is slang for cheating someone
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Monday… Election Commission to declare the party faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and allot it the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol.
Thackeray said he no longer has faith in the apex election body, saying it should be called the “Election Commission”.
“The Election Commission is fake. It should be called the Election Commission. “We have lost faith in it,” Thackeray said at a party event on the occasion of Marathi Language Day.
He claimed that the Election Commission should not have given a decision on the name and symbol of the party when the hearing was going on in the Supreme Court.
The former chief minister said the Election Commission had given one symbol each to the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party led by party founder late Ram Vilas Paswan’s son Chirag and Paswan’s brother Pashupati Kumar Paras in a dispute similar to that of the Shiv Sena.
However, both the factions are silent on this as they are with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, alleged Thackeray.
He claimed that parties had started uniting against the BJP and referred to his meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his talks with the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Bihar. Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar, respectively.
He said that if the opposition does not unite against the BJP, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections could be the last in the country.
Attacking Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his supporters, Thackeray said they are “creepers” who have started thinking of themselves as host trees.
Thackeray took a jibe at the Shinde faction, saying those who do not have values resort to theft, though he did not name anyone.
He challenged Shinde and the Bharatiya Janata Party to contest the elections.
Shinde rebelled against Thackeray in June last year, splitting the Shiv Sena and toppling the Maha Vikas Aghadi government comprising the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
Shinde became CM with the support of BJP.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)