Earlier, the Supreme Court in its order said that the Election Commission has the authority to decide on the dispute of election symbol between the two factions of Shiv Sena, one led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and another by Uddhav Thackeray. The Election Commission then decided to freeze the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol and give both parties till 1 PM on 10 October to submit three symbol choices from the list of available symbols.
Both the factions are fighting over the claim of ‘real-Shiv Sena’ and the election symbol ‘bow and arrow’ since the surprising coup by Eknath Shinde and other MLAs led to a split in the party and the fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra.
The Eknath Shinde faction formed the new government in coalition with the BJP with Devendra Fadnavis as Deputy Chief Minister.
Since then, a battle is on between both factions of the party. The recent Dussehra rally also became an occasion where leaders of both factions traded accusations at each other.
Uddhav Thackeray, who also won a court battle to hold his rally in Shivaji Park, near the party's headquarters, called Eknath Shinde a "traitor" for attempting to control the party for “greed,", while the Chief Minister also accused Uddhav of using party workers "for personal reasons" and chastised him for joining forces with the Congress and the NCP.
Earlier, the Shinde faction also filed a complaint before the Election Commission against the Uddhav faction misusing the election symbol and urged the poll body to take a decision soon.
Allotment of election symbol, in case of spilt in the party, is a sensitive matter and the Election Commission takes note of multiple factors while allotting the party symbol to one faction. Apart from the support of MPs and MLAs of the rival factions, the Commission also takes note of the support of party workers and officeholders in the party.
