Sena war in next battle but not yet decisive
Updated On: 10 October, 2022 05:45 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
It is to be seen how their new names and election symbols reach out to the voters who will take the last call
As it froze the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol and prevented the use of the official name Shiv Sena, the EC has allowed the factions to pick new names that can have linkage with their parent party. Pic/Rane Ashish
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/by any other name would smell as sweet,” Juliet tells Romeo in a bid to pledge her love and convince him that the name and the family it comes from don’t matter much. In this piece, we aren’t talking about two people deeply in love, but about the Shiv Sena splinters, bad blood separating them. Led respectively by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde, the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the family it comes from matter most when the two will go to the voters, more so in the wake of the Election Commission’s decision to freeze the party’s ‘bow and arrow’ symbol and prevent the use of the official name Shiv Sena, with a concession that the new names can have linkage with their parent party.
One of the faction heads is a direct descendent—a political heir appointed by the father who happened to be the founder of Shiv Sena, while the other is a majority MLA/MP-proclaimed inheritor of the founder’s ideology. Both are vying for their piece of the pie, and have been painting a rosy picture for their respective supporters. After the Election Commission’s interim order that “the factions shall be known by such names as they may choose for their respective groups, including, if they so desire, linkage with their parent party”, the action has boiled down to picking the names that could appeal to the voters. Thackeray must pick one immediately and get it approved by the EC because he will be setting up his candidate in the November 3 Andheri Assembly bypoll. Whatever names they officially choose for the commission’s approval, the factions have already been branded unofficially as Uddhav Sena and Shinde Sena. Let’s see who gets more innovative and appealing in their new branding.
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