Priyanka Chaturvedi slams EC's Shiv Sena decision; Sharad Pawar recalls Indira Gandhi

Priyanka Chaturvedi, a Rajya Sabha MP of the Shiv Sena (UBT), on Friday slammed the election commission's decision to recognise Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde faction's as the real Shiv Sena and hoped that the Supreme Cout will “stand up for constitutional morality”.

In a big blow to Uddhav Thackeray, the election commission allotted the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and its poll symbol ‘bow and arrow’ to the group led by Shinde.

Hitting out at the decision, Chaturvedi tweeted, “When institutions are EC- Entirely Compromised and one knows that the next attempt is to tame the judiciary, hope Hon SC of this country will stand up for democratic principles and constitutional morality.”

Anything lesser will only take us towards a banana republic, she added.

Later, she told news agency ANI that it's surprising to see independent agencies like the EC, which was set up to protect democracy and legislation, “stooping so low and taking sides of those who have betrayed a political party”.

“The BJP has already made the EC, ED and CBI its election toolkits and now their next aim is the judiciary. Law minister and Rajya Sabha chairman keep challenging the judiciary. So, it is Supreme Court’s responsibility to protect democracy,” Chaturvedi said.

In a unanimous order on the six-month-old petition filed by Shinde, the three-member commission said it had relied on the numerical strength of the party in the legislative wing, where the chief minister enjoyed the support of 40 of the 55 MLAs and 13 of the 18 Lok Sabha members.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar claimed that the decision would not have any major impact. He also stressed that the people would accept the new symbol.

The NCP chief asked Thackeray to accept the panel's decision and take a new symbol.

"It's the decision of the election commission. Once a decision is given, there can be no discussion. Accept it and take a new symbol. It (the loss of the old symbol) is not going to have any major impact as people will accept (the new symbol). It just would remain in the discussion for the next 15-30 days, that's it," Pawar said.

He recalled the Congress having to change its symbol from two bullocks with a yoke to a hand and said that the people would accept the new symbol of Uddhav Thackeray faction like the way they accepted the Congress' new symbol.

“I remember Indira Gandhi also faced this situation. The Congress used to have a 'two bullocks with a yoke' symbol. Later, they lost it and adopted 'hand' as a new symbol and people accepted it. Similarly, people will accept the new symbol (of Uddhav Thackeray faction),” he said.

Earlier, the Shinde faction burst crackers and celebrated in Nashik after the commission order.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction accused the Election Commission of haste and said the decision shows "it works as BJP agent".