The Election Commission on Tuesday allotted the “two swords and shield” symbol to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena for the upcoming Andheri (East) Assembly constituency byelection.
The group will be known by the name ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena’, which the EC had approved on Monday, and use the symbol allotted to it till the commission decides on the dispute between the Shinde group and the faction led by Uddhav Thackeray for control of the Shiv Sena name and symbol.
The two sides were asked by the EC to submit a list of three names and symbols each by Monday. While the EC allotted the Thackeray faction the ‘flaming torch’ symbol, none of the three options given by Mr. Shinde were accepted, and his camp was asked to submit new choices by Tuesday morning.
The Shinde group submitted two options - the ‘sun’ and the ‘dhal talwar’. In its letter to Mr. Shinde on Tuesday, the EC said the ‘sun’ symbol could not be allotted to the group as it resembled the symbols of Zoram Nationalist Party of Mizoram (sun without rays) and the DMK in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (rising sun).
The ‘dhal talwar’ was not on the list of free symbols and resembled the symbol of the People’s Democratic Movement, the two swords and the shield. The outfit had been derecognised as a State party in 2004 and delisted on December 26, 2016. The EC declared the symbol to be a free symbol and allotted it to Mr. Shinde’s group till the dispute is decided.
