Eknath Shinde (left), Uddhav Thackeray
Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena On Monday, January 30, 2023, presented its final arguments before the Election Commission staking its claim on the party organization and election symbol.
The written submissions were filed through their respective lawyers on Monday, which was the last day for submission of documents.
Rahul Shewale, leader of the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) in the Lok Sabha, said, “We are hopeful of an early decision by the Election Commission.”
On 20 January, the rival factions had completed their arguments before the Election Commission. Both the parties had submitted thousands of documents to the Election Commission over the past few months to support their claims and argued their respective cases before the Commission on three occasions.
Mr Shinde walked out of the Shiv Sena in June last year to become the chief minister of Maharashtra with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after toppling the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition government.
Since then, the Shinde and Thackeray factions of Shiv Sena have been fighting for control of the organisation.
In November last year, the Election Commission had asked Shiv Sena factions to submit fresh documents to withdraw their claim on the party’s name and symbol.
The commission had also asked them to exchange the documents handed over to them.
In an interim order in October, the poll panel barred both the factions from using the party’s name or its “bow and arrow” symbol.
Later, it allotted “Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray” as the party name for the Thackeray faction and “Balasahebchi Shiv Sena” (Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena) as the name for the Shinde group.
The Election Commission had said that the interim order would remain in force “till the final determination of the dispute”.