EC seeks Uddhav camp's reply by Oct 8 after Eknath Shinde claims Shiv Sena's 'bow & arrow'

After the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena met the Election Commission on Friday to stake claim for the party’s 'bow and arrow' poll symbol, the poll body has asked Uddhav's camp to respond by Saturday, October 8. The move by the Shinde camp came in a bid to deny the actual bow and arrow election symbol of Shiv Sena to the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction ahead of the Andheri East Assembly bypoll in Maharashtra, scheduled for November 3.

The tussle started after Uddhav Thackeray group decided to field Rutuja Latke, widow of MLA Ramesh Latke, for the November 3 bypoll, while the Shinde camp decided to project Murji Patel, a corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, for the bypoll. The bypoll was necessitated in the Andheri East Assembly due to the death of Ramesh Latke.

Shinde along with his rebel Sena MLAs revolted against the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government for entering into an "unnatural alliance" with the Congress and NCP. He succeeded Uddhav Thackeray after 40 of the 50 Shiv Sena MLAs withdrew their support for the latter.

Real Shiv Sena tussle

Since Eknath Shinde took over as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and formed an alliance with the BJP, the tussle between Shinde and the Uddhav camp has grown immensely as both the fractions are claiming themselves to be the real Shiv Sena.

Earlier in September as well, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who walked out of the Shiv Sena in June after a rebellion, after winning the Panchayat polls, said that the victory is a mandate by the people that they have "accepted" the alliance between the two parties.

"It also clears that we're not the Shinde faction only but we are the real Shiv Sena and people have accepted our alliance where we have won more than 300 panchayats. We will contest together in upcoming polls too," he said.