Victory of Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology: Eknath Shinde on EC decision

Eknath Shinde. File Pic

Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde on Friday described the Election Commission's decision to recognise his faction as the real Shiv Sena as victory of Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology.

I thank Election Commission. Majority counts in democracy, Shinde said, reacting to the poll panel's decision, seen as a major blow to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction, as per the PTI.

Also Read: Shiv Sena party name, symbol to be retained by Eknath Shinde faction: EC

This is the victory of Balasaheb's legacy. Ours is the true Shiv Sena, he said.

We set up the government in Maharashtra (with BJP) las year keeping in mind thoughts of Balasaheb, Shinde said.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced that the party name "Shiv Sena" and the symbol "Bow and Arrow" will be retained by the Eknath Shinde faction.

Notably, both factions of Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray) have been fighting for the bow and arrow symbol of the party since Shinde (present Maharashtra Chief Minister) revolted against Thackeray last year.

The Commission observed that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic. It has been mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all. Such party structures fail to inspire confidence.

In a landmark decision with far-reaching implications on political parties and their conduct, ECI advised all political parties to reflect democratic ethos and principles of inner party democracy and regularly disclose on their respective websites aspects of their inner party functioning, such as organisational details, holding of elections, the copy of Constitution and list of office bearers.

"The constitution of political parties ought to provide for free, fair and transparent elections to the posts of office bearers and a further free and fair procedure for the resolution of internal disputes. These procedures ought to be difficult to amend and should be amendable only after ensuring larger support of the organisational members for the same," the ECI said, according to the ANI.

(with PTI/ANI inputs)