The petition said the EC decision did not effect any grassroots scrutiny of cadres, most of whom still support the Thackeray faction.
Senior Counsel AM Singhvi attempted to make an unscheduled mention of the matter before CJI DY Chandrachud for the advance petition listing of the Sena faction led by Thackeray. But the CJI said the rule applies equally to everyone, “whether of the left, right or centre”.
“Come through a proper process tomorrow,” he said.
The Maharashtra CM and rival faction leader Eknath Shinde had previously applied to the Supreme Court early, filing a caveat notifying the higher court that Uddhav Thackeray could challenge the Election Commission’s ruling. Shinde had urged the SC not to issue any orders without hearing from the Maharashtra government.
The EC had last week recognized the Shinde faction as the original Shiv Sena, allowing it to use the “bow and arrow” symbol in elections, effectively denying Uddhav a claim to the party founded by his father Bal Thackeray in 1966.
The 3 EC members said they relied on the numerical strength of the Legislative Party, where CM Shinde had the support of 40 of 55 MLAs and 13 of 18 Lok Sabha members, to arrive at the unanimous decision.
Uddhav had called the EC’s decision an “assassination of democracy” and a “theft”.
Uddhav faction leader Sanjay Raut even said that “deals and transactions worth Rs 2000 crore” have been made in the past six months to get the name and emblem of the Shiv Sena party. He said that the 40 MLAs who defected to Shinde camp received Rs 50 crore each.
