EC has no right to take Shiv Sena name from us: Uddhav Thackeray

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the Election Commission (EC) had “no right” to take away the ‘Shiv Sena’ party name even as he challenged the EC’s allocation of the party name and symbol to the rival Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in the Supreme Court.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the Election Commission (EC) had “no right” to take away the ‘Shiv Sena’ party name even as he challenged the EC’s allocation of the party name and symbol to the rival Sena faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in the Supreme Court.

“The Shiv Sena’s name was given by my grandfather [Keshav Sitaram ‘Prabhodankar’ Thackeray] and my father [Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray]…you [EC] have no right to take it from me. You may take away the party’s election symbol… We can accept that. But we will not tolerate any heavy-handed attitude in the case of the party name. Hence, we have moved the Supreme Court on this count,” Mr. Thackeray said, addressing his party workers in Amravati.

Speaking on the second day of his tour of the Vidarbha region, Mr. Thackeray lashed out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s politics of splitting parties, referring to NCP leader Ajit Pawar’s induction into the ruling BJP-Shinde Sena government along with several senior NCP leaders.

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Thackeray said that after being hailed as the most popular Prime Minister in many surveys, the PM still felt the need to break other parties.

“Yesterday you stole my Shiv Sena, today you did the same with the NCP. Tomorrow, you will steal something else… despite being drunk on power, the BJP do not have any self-confidence in them. They still dread losing the 2024 election. They have decided not to keep any Opposition standing. Hence, they are unleashing the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies on us,” he said and challenged the BJP to leave agencies aside and face the Opposition parties in elections.

Mr. Thackeray said he “pitied” the condition of the BJP loyalists who were groaning under the weight of defectors from other parties.

“I feel pity for the loyal BJP workers. I have respect for them and the dedicated RSS workers who gave their all to build the BJP…today, they are getting crushed under the weight of defectors from other parties. Do their superiors realise how much their party’s loyalists are suffering as a result of this? The BJP’s only agenda seems to be to poach the most corrupt people from other parties,” the former CM said.