Maharashtra: Thackeray camp seeks EC's nod for internal polls

Amid the factional fight involving Shiv Sena and proceedings pending before the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the name and symbol, a technical issue has cropped up. Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray’s term as party chief (paksha pramukh in Marathi) is ending on January 23 this year, lawyers of Sena (UBT) have requested the Election Commission (EC) to allow them to hold their internal party’s organisational election, party leader Anil Desai said on Wednesday.

“The EC has been informed by our lawyers that the term of Sena party president is ending on January 23 and they asked for permission to hold intra-party elections to elect our party president and other leaders for our party’s national executive before the term ends on January 23. If there is any objection from the EC, it should allow us to continue with the current party structure or extend the term of the current post holders…,” Desai told media persons in Delhi.

The EC is currently hearing a dispute between the two factions of Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. While the Sena is requesting the EC to allow it to conduct intra-party elections and appoint Uddhav as its head again, the Shinde faction opposed this in the EC hearing on Tuesday, saying the post was created illegally after the death of party founder Bal Thackeray. In addition to it, a submission made by the Shinde faction in the EC has claimed that the post of Shiv Sena paksha pramukh, or the party president, which is held by Uddhav, was unanimously resolved to be cancelled and in place of it, Shinde was appointed ‘mukhya neta’, the president of Shiv Sena in the Pratinidhi Sabha, in an election held in July last year.