Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction requested SC to stop the Election Commission from deciding on who has control of the party.
Mumbai: After the rebel Team Shinde came into power, it claimed that they are the real Shiv Sainik and the party belongs to them, Uddhav Thackeray group of the Shiv Sena has requested the Supreme Court to stop the Election Commission(EC) from taking a decision regarding who will own Shiv Sena; either Uddhav Thackeray or the current Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde. He urged the decision to be halted until the pending verdict is given on the disqualification of MPs, who had rebelled against Mr. Thackeray, the former CM of Maharashtra.
The Election Commission said that it will consider the matter only if both the Sena groups submit documentary evidence and written statements by August 8 as proof regarding who represents the Maharashtra Party. After receiving the documentary evidence from both groups, the EC will proceed further for a substantive hearing.
The Thackeray team told the Supreme Court in a petition that the Electoral Commission cannot decide which group represents the Shiv Sena until there is clarity on the disqualification of the Sena MLA rebels – who jumped from Gujarat to Assam in Goa in a political operation last month – and dethroned Mr. Thackeray.
In a letter to the constitutional body responsible for assigning party symbols and conducting elections, Team Shinde said they had the support of 40 of the 55 MLAs and 12 of the 18 Lok Sabha MPs.
The Shinde camp has previously asked the state assembly speaker, Rahul Narwekar to expel Thackeray’s Sena for disqualifying the party whip, however on the order of the apex court the speaker didn’t proceed with the plea.
Both the division were asked to consider the issues by a larger bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, with the case set to be heard on August 1.
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