Mumbai: Shortly after the Election Commission (EC) froze the Shiv Sena’s ‘bow and arrow’ symbol Saturday, Uddhav Thackeray’s trusted aide Milind Narvekar tweeted a photograph of a menacing tiger and captioned it: “Amche chinha Shri Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (Our symbol is Shri Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).”
— Milind Narvekar (@NarvekarMilind_) October 8, 2022
In the upcoming by-poll on 3 November, which would be the first major test for the Thackeray-led Sena after a vertical split in the party, leaders are banking on the “Thackeray brand” and public sympathy.
Meanwhile, the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has formally proposed three alternative symbols that the EC can allot to the party. These are the trishul, mashaal (torch flame), and rising sun, Shiv Sena spokesperson Arvind Sawant told reporters.
Shiv Sena MLC Manisha Kayande told ThePrint: “We may have lost the symbol for this election, but in all our campaigning material, the hoardings, the posters, we will have Uddhavji’s face, the ‘Thackeray brand’. They can’t take that away from us.”
“The EC’s order was like match-fixing… There is an overwhelming sympathy wave for us. It just has to convert to votes,” Kayande added.
The poll body on Saturday issued an interim order freezing the “bow and arrow” symbol that the two Shiv Sena factions – led by Uddhav and Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde – were fighting for, citing the impending Andheri East by-poll.
The Andheri East assembly constituency was held by Shiv Sena MLA Ramesh Latke, who died of a heart attack before the party split in June.
The Uddhav faction has fielded his wife Rutuja Latke, who has the support of former Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition partners, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party.
She will take on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Murji Patel, who is the face of the ruling coalition, fronted by Eknath Shinde’s Sena faction.
While Uddhav Thackeray has not directly commented on the EC’s order, he shared a photograph on Instagram of himself with Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray with a caption, “Jinkun dakhavnarach (We will definitely win).”
“Bas naam hi kaafi hain”
Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi, who has stayed with the Thackeray-led Sena and represents the Rajapur assembly constituency in Konkan, said the bow and arrow symbol was important for the common Shiv Sainik, but the party can win elections without it.
“In gram panchayat elections, there is no symbol. We only have Shiv Sena-backed panels and campaigning material with the names and faces of Uddhavsaheb, Aadityasaheb, Balasaheb. The rural voter still knows it is the Shiv Sena. In Konkan, we have won so many gram panchayat elections like this. The experience will not be any different in an urban bypoll,” Salvi told ThePrint.
On Sunday morning, Salvi tweeted a photograph of himself with Uddhav Thackeray standing in front of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s portrait, saying, “Bas naam hi kaafi hain” (The name is good enough).”
“The fight for this by-poll is against the BJP. Everyone knows that the EC’s decision was unfortunate. There is massive sympathy among voters for the Thackeray family, the Shiv Sena and for Ramesh Latke who passed away before all this started,” Salvi said.
Shiv Sena leaders in a huddle
Uddhav Thackeray called for a meeting of senior party leaders on Sunday afternoon to decide the next steps for the party, and the possible symbols. In the meeting, Thackeray discussed the trishul, mashaal and the rising sun as alternative symbols that are currently not allotted to any other party.
After the meeting, Sawant told reporters, “The EC took a decision to freeze our symbol without giving a hearing. We have now given three alternative symbols… our party’s name is Shiv Sena, but if the EC says anything about it, we have options of calling the party ‘Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray,’ or ‘Shiv Sena Balasaheb Thackeray,’ or ‘Shiv Sena Prabodhankar Thackeray.’”
A senior Sena leader told ThePrint, “At some level, Uddhavsaheb was expecting this and had told us two months ago that he had thought of an alternative symbol.”
Meanwhile, Deepak Kesarkar, a state cabinet minister from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena told reporters, “This (the EC’s decision) is actually an injustice to us. Despite having the majority, our claim has not been accepted….We will still stand our ground…they (Thackeray-led Shiv Sena) have kept several options ready, but we haven’t done anything of that sort.”
Kesarkar said the Thackeray-led Sena is crying foul only to get people’s sympathy. “Balasaheb was never dependant on people’s sympathy,” he added.
Also read: EC order on Shiv Sena name and symbol doesn’t mean Thackeray faction weak or demoralised: NCP