After the Shiv Sena office at Vidhan Bhavan, the Eknath Shinde-led group now has control over the party office (Room No. 128) in the Parliament, too.
Member of Parliament (MP) Rahul Shewale had officially made the request to the Lok Sabha Speaker, attaching the Election Commission of India order on the party name and symbol in favour of the Shinde group.
The procedure was completed on Monday, and the Secretariat Deputy Secretary Sunanda Chatterjee wrote to Shewale on Tuesday morning, giving the party control of the office.
The Shinde faction has 13 out of 19 MPs, and the Uddhav camp claims to have six but could submit the affidavits of only four.
Anil Desai, Rajya Sabha MP from the Uddhav camp, said they will write to the Lok Sabha Speaker and present their side. “We will inform him about the ECI order as well as our challenge to it in the Supreme Court,” he said.
Eknath Shinde took over the Shiv Sena party office at Vidhan Bhawan a day ago. MLA Bharat Gogavale along with his party colleagues and office bearers of Shinde group went to assembly building and took possession of the office. Now, Devendra Suryavanshi will be office head of the Shivsena legislative party.
Uddhav moves to Supreme Court
On the other hand, the Thackeray faction have turned to judiciary for justice after the order of Election Commission. The Supreme Court of India will hear Uddhav Thackeray's plea challenging Election Commission order recognising Eknath Shinde faction as official Shiv Sena tomorrow.
The hearing will begin at 3.30 pm.
Uddhav Thacekray and his faction of leaders, who were upset with ECI's decision, said that they will approach the Supreme Court against their decision.
Thackeray had also demanded dissolution of the poll panel; the Sena [UBT] leaders alleged that the Shinde faction stole the name and symbol from them.
Shiv Sena name and symbol awarded to Shinde faction
The Shiv Sena faction led by Uddhav Thackeray suffered a body blow on Friday when the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognised the faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena. Shinde supporters burst crackers outside their party office opposite Mantralaya.
The ECI, in its 78-page order, also alloted the symbol "Bow & Arrow" to Shinde's faction. The Sena, founded by the late Bal Thackeray 1966, had consistently fought elections on the "Bow & Arrow" symbol all these decades and its allotment to Shinde is a major setback to Thackeray.
