On Monday, the EC had rejected all three symbols proposed by the Shinde camp: ‘Trishul’ and ‘Gada’ for their religious connotation; and ‘Rising Sun’ as it is a DMK symbol. The EC had asked the faction to give a new list of three preferred symbols by 10 am on Tuesday.
The faction on Tuesday gave the EC three more options for poll symbols: ‘Peepul Tree’, ‘Shining Sun’ and ‘Shield and Sword‘. In its order on Tuesday, the EC said that the ‘shining sun’ closely resembles poll symbols of other parties, including the DMK.
New poll symbol, name of Uddhav camp
The EC has allotted the ‘mashaal (flaming torch)’ as poll symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of the Shiv Sena. It had rejected the Uddhav camp’s choice of ‘trishul’ citing its religious connotation, and ‘rising sun’ as it is a DMK symbol.
The Thackeray faction was also allotted the name: Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).
Legacy battle
On October 8, the EC had barred both Shiv Sena factions from using the party name and its ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol in the November 3 Andheri East assembly bypolls. The Uddhav-led Shiv Sena faction on Monday moved the Delhi high court seeking quashing of the EC order freezing the party’s name and symbol.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is learnt to have taken a tough stand against the allocation of symbols with religious connotations to political parties.
The rival factions of Shiv Sena had both claimed ‘Trishul’ and ‘rising sun’ as election symbols.
Shinde had rebelled against Thackeray’s leadership, claiming the support of 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs and 12 of its 18 members in the Lok Sabha.
Following Thackeray’s resignation as chief minister of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition, Shinde became chief minister with the support of the BJP. Shinde then launched a campaign to claim Shiv Sena’s name as well as the poll symbol, stating that his faction was the ‘real’ Shiv Sena and followers of Balasaheb Thackeray.
(With inputs from agencies)