Ajit Karn
On Monday, Bhushan Desai, the son of former Maharashtra Minister and Uddhav Thackeray faction leader Subhash Desai, joined the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Bhushan Desai joined the Shinde faction while the chief minister was present.
After Subhash Desai joined the party, Chief Minister Shinde told the media, “Many stalwart leaders who worked with Balasaheb Thackeray have joined us since the beginning of our revolt.”
He stated that the party is committed to Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology and to the common man’s welfare. “With this in mind, Bhushan Desai has decided to join our party and work with us,” Shinde said.
Bhushan Desai stated on this occasion, “Balasaheb Thackeray is my idol. Currently, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde carries on the Hindutva legacy begun by Balasaheb Thackeray.”
Bhushan Desai stated that his close observation of Eknath Shinde’s work led him to join the Shiv Sena, which is led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) assigned the party name “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow” to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on February 17, dealing a significant blow to the Uddhav Thackery faction of Shiv Sena.
While the Shinde faction applauded the decision to recognise them as the legitimate Shiv Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray faction announced that they will appeal to the Supreme Court.
In its order, the Commission noted that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic and has been “mutilated to undemocratically appoint office bearers from a coterie without any election whatsoever.” It was stated that these party structures do not inspire confidence.
The polling panel advised all political parties to reflect democratic ethos and principles of inner party democracy and to regularly disclose on their respective websites aspects of their inner party functioning, such as organisational information, elections, the Constitution, and a list of office bearers.
“The constitutions of political parties should provide for free, fair, and transparent elections to office-bearer positions, as well as a free and fair procedure for resolving internal disputes. These procedures should be difficult to change and should only be amendable after gaining the support of a majority of the organization’s members, according to the ECI.
Last month, both the Shinde-led and Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted written statements to the Election Commission in support of their respective claims regarding the party’s name and symbol.
The ECI froze the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena and assigned the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena, while the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) was assigned to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the byelection in the Andheri East assembly constituency in November of last year.
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Last year, a split within the Shiv Sena forced Uddhav Thackeray to resign as chief minister of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Shinde later joined forces with the BJP to form the state’s government.
