‘Jo Ram ka nahi…’: Navneet Rana on Uddhav losing Shiv Sena name, symbol
Navneet Rana, MP from Maharashtra’s Amravati, said Eknath Shinde had been with Bal Thackeray at the ground level and fully deserves the Shiv Sena symbol and its legacy.
She said once a party splits, 90 per cent go with the new faction and the Election Commission had to give the party name and symbol to the Shinde camp.
The statement comes hours after Shinde’s Sena became the real Shiv Sena, with the poll body giving it the iconic bow and arrow symbol and also the name ‘Shiv Sena’.
On the setback to the Sena faction led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Rana said, “Jo Ram ka nahi, Hanuman ka nahi, wo kisi kaam ka nahi.“
The Election Commission on Friday allotted the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and its poll symbol ‘bow and arrow’ to the group led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
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.
It gave a detailed reasoning on why it was forced to ignore the claims of the rival factions led by Shinde and Thackeray respectively over the organisational wing of the party, contending that the amendments to the Shiv Sena constitution in 2018, after the death of founder Balasaheb Thackeray, were undemocratic and paved the way to appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all.
Shinde described the EC verdict as a “victory of truth and people as well as the blessings of Balasaheb Thackeray”, while a furious Uddhav Thackeray, the former Maharashtra chief minister, said he would approach the Supreme Court against the EC order.
This is the first time that the Thackeray family has lost control of the party that was founded in 1966 by Balasaheb Thackeray on the principles of justice for the sons of the soil.
