In ‘real’ Shiv Sena tussle, Team Shinde has an edge as SC rejects Uddhav camp's plea

A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court heard the application of the Uddhav Thackeray group to restrain the Election Commission from deciding on the claim of the Shinde-led group over the "real" Shiv Sena.

Updated on: Sep 27, 2022, 17:47:48 IST

By HT News Desk | Written by Sohini Goswami

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The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the Election Commission of India to take a decision on which faction of the Shiv Sena is real and rejected a plea by the Uddhav Thackeray-camp to stay proceedings in the matter.

The other faction is led by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde.

A Constitution bench, headed by Justice DY Chandrachud, heard the application of the Thackeray group to restrain the Election Commission from deciding on an appeal from the Shinde-led group seeking recognition as the real Shiv Sena and allocation of the party's bow-and-arrow poll symbol to it

over the "real" Shiv Sena.

“We direct that there would be no stay of the proceedings before the Election Commission,” the bench also comprising Justices MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Narasimha said.

Earlier in the day, Sena president and former CM Uddhav Thackeray had said he was confident that his team will emerge victorious in the legal tussle with the rebel team.

A revolt engineered by Shinde with assistance from the BJP had resulted in the fall of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister on June 30 with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.

On August 23, the Supreme Court had referred to a five-judge bench the petitions filed by the Thackeray and Shinde-led factions raising several constitutional questions related to defection, merger and disqualification.

Thackeray's lawyers had earlier submitted that party MLAs loyal to Shinde can save themselves from disqualification under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution only by merging with another political party. The Shinde group said the anti-defection law is not a weapon for a leader who has lost the confidence of his own party.

(With inputs from bureau and agencies)

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