Mumbai: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday took a dig at Eknath Shinde’s party, saying the symbol of ‘bow and arrow’ has been stolen.
Alleging involvement of high officials in the Election Commission’s decision, Raut said, “Our ‘bow and arrow’ has been stolen.” High officials are involved. We will trace the kingpin and bring him before the public. We will get a new party sign later but before that we will expose these thieves.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday allotted the party name “Shiv Sena” and election symbol “bow and arrow” to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Raut further said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would only “use” Balasaheb Thackeray’s name for votes.
BJP is accusing Shiv Sena of using its name for votes. Now they will use Balasaheb’s name for votes. For this they have stolen our ‘bow and arrows’. Shiv Sena is not an ordinary party, we will always be there and will again come to power in future.
Notably, both the Shiv Sena factions (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the party’s bow and arrow symbol since Shinde’s (current Maharashtra Chief Minister) rebellion against Thackeray last year.
While the Shinde faction welcomed the decision to be recognized as the original Shiv Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray faction said they would approach the Supreme Court.
Earlier, Eknath Shinde faction burst crackers and celebrated in Nashik today following the order of the Election Commission.
Uddhav Thackeray’s faction accused the Election Commission of haste and said the decision shows that “it works as a BJP agent”.
The commission, in its order, found that the present constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic and has been “perverted to undemocratically appoint persons of a circle as office-bearers without any election”. It added that such a party structure fails to inspire confidence.
Describing the poll panel’s decision as “murder of democracy”, Uddhav Thackeray said he would approach the Supreme Court against the decision.
Last month, both the factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and former Shiv Sena CM Uddhav Thackeray submitted their written statements to the Election Commission in support of their claims to control the party’s name and symbol.
ECI freezes Shiv Sena’s bow and arrow symbol and allots ‘two swords and shield symbol’ to Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and ‘flaming torch’ (torch) election symbol to Uddhav Thackeray faction For the by-election in the Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.
However, expressing confidence of winning the election with the ‘torch’ symbol, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday challenged Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to contest the polls with a ‘stolen bow and arrow’, saying ‘let the battle begin’. Has been’.
He further added that the thieves were given the sacred “bow and arrows” and this is their test.
“Thieves were given the sacred ‘bow and arrow’, in the same way the ‘Mashal’ (torch) can also be taken away. I challenge them- if they are men, then even by taking the stolen ‘bow-arrow’ from our Come forward, we will contest elections with ‘Mashal’. This is our test, the fight has begun,” Thackeray said. (ANI)
This report has been auto generated from ANI News Service. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.