Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 26: The Supreme Court will hear Uddhav Thackeray’s, the leader of the Shiv Sena plea on Monday on his appeal regarding the struggle over the party’s election symbol.
In an effort to stop the Election Commission’s investigation into the Eknath Shinde faction’s bid to be recognised as the ‘real’ Shiv Sena, Thackeray has petitioned the Supreme Court.
After the Maha Vikas Aghadi administration in Maharashtra was overthrown and Thackeray was replaced as Chief Minister, a struggle for the party’s symbol erupted. With help from the BJP, Eknath Shinde, who organised the uprising against the Thackerays, has now assumed control of the government.
After the Election Commission requested that both parties produce documentation to back their claims for the party emblem, Team Thackeray filed a motion with the Supreme Court yesterday.
Team Shinde stated in a letter to the Election Commission that it has the backing of 12 out of 18 Lok Sabha MPs and 40 out of the 55 MLAs.
The Thackeray group then petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing that until the Supreme Court rules on the disqualification notices filed by both factions against officials in the opposing camp, the poll panel cannot determine which is the ‘real’ Shiv Sena.
Senior Attorney Kapil Sibal spoke on behalf of the Thackeray group before the bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana today. The Chief Justice enquired about the state of the proceedings before the Election Commission from Senior Advocate NK Kaul, who represented the Shinde camp, Kaul retorted that the polling panel had just notified both camps that they needed to submit the evidence for their claims by August 8.
The court subsequently announced that this case and any connected pleas would be heard on Monday.
