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Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday described the Election Commission’s decision to recognise his faction as the real Shiv Sena as a victory of truth and the party founder Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the decision established that Shinde was the leader of the Sena.
“I thank the Election Commission. Majority counts in democracy,” Shinde said, reacting to the poll panel’s decision which came as a major blow to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction. “This is the victory of Balasaheb’s legacy. Ours is the true Shiv Sena,” Shinde added. “We set up the government in Maharashtra (with the BJP) last year keeping in mind the thoughts of Balasaheb,” Shinde said.
This was the victory of truth and people as well as Balasaheb’s blessings, he said. Shinde’s rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership in June 2022 brought down the Sena-NCP-Congress coalition government led by Thackeray. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, meanwhile, said it was now proved that Eknath Shinde led the real Shiv Sena. The decision has been given on the strength of numbers, he told reporters.
Earlier, The Election Commission recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered allocation of the “bow and arrow” poll symbol to it.
In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the “flaming torch” poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly bypolls in the state.
The Commission said MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.
