The Election Commission on Friday recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered the allocation of the “bow and arrow” poll symbol to it.
The Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the “flaming torch” poll symbol allotted to it until the state assembly bypolls were completed in a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation.
The Commission said MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls.
The Uddhav Thackeray faction’s MLAs got 23.5 per cent of the votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said in a unanimous order.
Meanwhile, Uddhav-faction leader Sanjay Raut said that the decision was expected and that they would go with a new symbol.
In October of last year, the EC froze the symbol and party name and assigned new interim names and symbols to both factions, asking them to submit details of their support from the party’s cadre and elected representatives, as well as the organisational wing.
