Uddhav Thackeray vs Eknath Shinde: Shiv Sena’s Website Deleted, Names of Social Media Handles Changed

Uddhav Thackeray faction on Monday also approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the EC recognising the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena.

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New Delhi: The website of Shiv Sena was on Monday (February 20, 2023) deleted and the name on its official Twitter account changed, days after the Eknath Shinde camp was declared as the real Shiv Sena and got the party's 'Bow-and-Arrow' symbol. The website of Shiv Sena -- with the domain name http://shivsena.in -- has been deleted and its Twitter handle name has been changed to "ShivSena - Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray". The Twitter handle, however, has now lost its 'blue tick' that indicates a verified account on the micro-blogging platform.

The development came amid the Thackeray faction on Monday approaching the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Election Commission recognising the Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordering allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud for an early listing of the Thackeray-led Sena faction's petition.

Earlier last week, the poll body had recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered the allocation of the "bow and arrow" poll symbol to it. In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the Commission allowed the Thackeray geoup to keep the "flaming torch" poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly by-polls in the state.

The Commission said MLAs backing Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said.

Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray on Monday held an urgent meeting with his close associates at the Shiv Sena Bhavan in Mumbai to decide their future course of action.

Leaders close to Thackeray, including Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, Subhash Desai, Anil Desai and Anil Parab, were present in the meeting held at the Sena Bhavan located in the Dadar area.

Thackeray, as per reports, has also invited several district-level leaders of his camp to discuss the future course of action.