Uddhav Thackeray seeks freeze on Shiv Sena name, bow-and-arrow symbol in Supreme Court

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that the Shiv Sena party name and its bow-and-arrow symbol belong to Uddhav Thackeray and argued that if the court does not allot them to his faction, both should be frozen.

Key points

• Sibal additionally argued that the Election Commission's decision was contrary to the anti-defection provisions of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution.
• "If they cannot get that symbol and I cannot get it either, then that symbol should be frozen, " Sibal submitted.
• When a person is in power, it is natural that this will happen.
• He pressed the court to either recognise Thackeray's claim over the party name and symbol or, if it declined to do so, prevent both factions from using them.

Notably, the hearing in the long-running dispute over the party's name and election symbol is in its final stage, with the Supreme Court projected to pronounce its judgment shortly.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Shiv Sena (UBT), argued that the Election Commission's decision to allot the Shiv Sena name and bow-and-arrow symbol to the faction led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was legally unsustainable.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission had recognised the Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena based on the majority backing it maintained from the party's MLAs and MPs after the 2022 split.

Sibal argued that elected representatives cannot be equated with the political party itself and that the backing of MLAs and MPs should not determine ownership of a party's identity.

He contended that recognising a faction based on the subsequent backing of MLAs and MPs could incentivise defections and undermine the constitutional framework intended to prevent elected representatives from switching political loyalties.

"When a person is in power, it is natural that this will happen. But the prior situations must be considered. Nothing that happened after that can be applied in a way that will encourage defection, " Sibal argued.

When Shinde and a majority of the party's MLAs rebelled against Thackeray, leading to the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi administration in Maharashtra, the dispute stems from the 2022 split in the Shiv Sena.

While the Thackeray-led faction was assigned the name Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) and the flaming torch symbol, the Election Commission subsequently allotted the Shiv Sena name and bow-and-arrow symbol to the Shinde faction.

In short, uddhav Thackeray seeks freeze on Shiv Sena name, bow-and is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.