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The petition claimed that the EC decision carried out no grassroot level scrutiny of cadre, majority of which is still support Thackeray faction.
Senior advocate AM Singhvi attempted to make an unscheduled mentioning of the matter before CJI DY Chandrachud for early listing of Thackeray-led Sena faction’s petition. But the CJI said the rule applies equally to all, “whether left, right or centre.”
“Come tomorrow through proper process,” he said.
Maharashtra CM and rival faction leader Eknath Shinde had earlier approached the Supreme Court in anticipation, filing a caveat notifying the top court that Uddhav Thackeray might challenge the Election Commission ruling. Shinde had urged the SC not to pass any order without hearing from the Maharashtra government.
The EC had last week recognised the Shinde faction as the original Shiv Sena, allowing it to use the “Bow and Arrow” symbol in elections — practically denying Uddhav a claim on the party his father Bal Thackeray founded in 1966.
The 3-member EC in said it relied on numerical strength of the legislature party, where CM Shinde had the support of 40 of 55 MLAs and 13 of the 18 members in Lok Sabha, in arriving at the unanimous decision.
Uddhav had termed the EC decision a “murder of democracy” and a “theft”.
Uddhav faction leader Sanjay Raut even alleged that “deals and transactions worth Rs 2000 crore” have been done in the past six months to get the Shiv Sena party name and symbol. He claimed that the 40 MLAs who defected to the Shinde camp were given Rs 50 crore each.
