Shinde, Thackeray factions seek appointment of new chief whip of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra Legislative Council

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 28 (ANI): Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has proposed that Viplove Bajoria be made the whip of the Shiv Sena in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, while the faction led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has sought the appointment of Vilas Potnis.

Currently, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MLC Anil Parab is the party’s chief whip in the House.
Both factions of Shiv Sena have sought the appointment of their chief whip in the Upper House, official sources said on Tuesday, adding that the Presiding Officer of the House is looking into the legal technicalities of the matter, arising due to the Election Commission order allotting the name Shiv Sena and its symbol (bow and arrow) to the Eknath Shinde camp.

While the Uddhav faction has more number of MLCs in the Council the Shinde faction has more MLAs in the Assembly.

Following the Election Commission order, the Presiding officer of the Maharashtra Legislative Council is looking into technical aspect in the appointment of the chip whip of the party as the official ‘Shiv Sena’ name belongs to the Shinde faction, however, it does not have sufficient MLCs in the House to be able to defeat the numbers of the Uddhav faction.

“The Legislative Council secretariat has received letters on the issue but the presiding officer has not taken any decision on them yet. So it would not be correct to say that anyone is appointed as Chief whip of Shiv Sena. The matter is still being considered by the presiding officer as per legal provisions,” sources said.

Bharat Gogawale, the Shinde faction whip in the State Assembly said, “At the moment the name of the party has become ours, the symbol of the party has become ours, so we have named Viplove Bajoria as Chief Whip. Even though we have fewer members in the Legislative Council at present, it would seem that this picture will change in the coming time and our number will increase there as well. Anyway, the party’s whip would be appointed from the one who has been elected on the symbol and name of the party.”

Earlier on February 17, in a major setback to the Uddhav Thackery faction of Shiv Sena, the Election Commission of India (ECI) allotted the party name “Shiv Sena” and the symbol “Bow and Arrow” to the faction led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

While the Shinde faction welcomed the decision of being recognized as the real Shiv Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray faction said they will move the Supreme Court.

The Commission observed in its order that the current constitution of the Shiv Sena party is undemocratic and has been “mutilated to undemocratically appoint people from a coterie as office bearers without any election at all”. It said such party structures fail to inspire confidence.

The poll panel advised all political parties to reflect democratic ethos and principles of inner party democracy and regularly disclose on their respective websites aspects of their inner party functioning, such as organisational details, holding of elections, the copy of the Constitution and list of office bearers.

“The constitution of political parties ought to provide for free, fair and transparent elections to the posts of office bearers and a further free and fair procedure for the resolution of internal disputes. These procedures ought to be difficult to amend and should be amendable only after ensuring larger support of the organisational members for the same,” the ECI said.

Last month, both the Maharashtra Chief Minister Shinde and former CM Uddhav Thackeray-led factions of the Shiv Sena submitted their written statements in support of their claims over the party name and symbol to the Election Commission.

The ECI had frozen the bow and arrow symbol of the Shiv Sena and had allotted the ‘Two Swords and Shield symbol’ to the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena and the ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) election symbol was allotted to the Uddhav Thackeray faction for the bypoll in Andheri East assembly constituency in November last year.

Shiv Sena had seen a split last year forcing Uddhav Thackeray to resign as Chief Minister of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. Shinde later joined hands with BJP to form a government in the state.