The Supreme Court has said it will hear at 3.30 pm tomorrow a plea by Uddhav Thackeray to restrain Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde from taking control of Shiv Sena properties and finances.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal appeared for Thackeray and sought a stay on last week’s Election Commission ruling that gave the Shinde faction the party’s original name and iconic bow-and-arrow symbol. The Shinde camp argued the matter should not be heard by the top court at the first instance.
The two sides have been squabbling over the Shiv Sena name and symbol for over eight months – ever since Shinde and 39 other lawmakers split the party that was then led by Thackeray, who lead a Sena-Congress-NCP government – by walking out and forming a new government with support from the BJP.
On Monday Thackeray told the top court the EC had failed as a neutral arbiter and that its order dealt with issues linked to petitions before it. Thackeray’s petition also sought a stay on the EC order by linking it to a plea regarding disqualification of Shinde and 15 other rebel Shiv Sena lawmakers.
The court has yet to give its verdict on that plea by the Thackeray camp.
READ | Thackeray goes to court over Election Commission’s Sena order
“Everything has been stolen from me. The name and symbol of our party have been stolen but the name Thackeray cannot be stolen,” Thackeray said.
READ | Election Commission failed as neutral arbiter: Uddhav Thackeray
“What the BJP did with us (a reference to claims the engineered the split in the Sena)… they can do with anyone. If this continues, after 2024 there won’t be democracy or election…” he said, accusing the BJP of undermining institutions.
Asked about the Shinde faction taking over Sena properties, he said, “I dare them to stop using name of my father (Sena patriarch, founder Balasaheb Thackeray) and his photo. Let him put photo of his father and seek votes.”
Earlier Shinde had called the EC’s order ‘victory of democracy’.
Shinde camp to meet today
Shinde’s faction is to meet later today – its first since the EC order – at which he is expected to appoint new members to the party’s national executive.
The meeting has been pitched as a key gathering ahead of two Assembly by-polls this month and the Mumbai municipal body election, and will give Shinde (and by extension Thackeray) an estimate of their respective support bases.
Fight over offices, website and Twitter handle
The EC’s order also led to another row in the Sena v Sena battle after Shinde faction legislators took charge of the Sena office in the Maharashtra Assembly; the Thackeray faction held the office till Friday. “Since EC has recognised us as Shiv Sena, this office now belongs to us,” a Sena (Shinde) leader said.
On Tuesday the Lok Sabha Secretariat said the Shiv Sena office in the Parliament building in Delhi had been allotted to the Shinde faction.
Rahul Shewalae, the floor leader of the Shinde faction, had written to the Secretariat citing the EC order to claim the office for his party.
The Thackeray camp hit back by deleting its website – to prevent it being accessed/controlled by their rivals – and changing the name on its Twitter profile, which automatically removes the blue tick to signal a ‘verified’ handle.
READ | In Thackeray v Shinde war, website deleted, Twitter handle changed
The website is now offline by the link remains on the Twitter profile.
