EC allots new names for Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde factions. Here are the details

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has allotted new names to Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde's factions of the Shiv Sena party. Uddhav's Shiv Sena will now be known as Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and its symbol will be a mashaal (flaming torch). Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena will be called Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena.

The symbol of Shinde's party has not been decided yet. Shinde faction had proposed trishul, mace and rising sun which the EC rejected. Election commission has asked the party to provide it with three options by 10 am on Tuesday.

The EC had also frozen the original Shiv Sena party name and its symbol on October 8 and had said that no factions should use it for the upcoming bypoll till the EC passes the final order on the dispute.

Why new party names and symbols were needed: The new party names were needed as the Shiv Sena party split into two after legislative council elections on June 20, 2022, when Eknath Shinde along with 48 other MLAs rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray and formed government with support from BJP on June 30.

• One faction of MLAs was with then Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray while the other faction was with Shinde.
• Shinde was named as the new CM of Maharashtra after Uddhav Thackeray handed over his resignation to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari on June 30, sensing the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government's fall.
• After the new government formation, Shinde claimed that since he has the support of large number of Sena MLAs, he represents the real Shiv Sena while Uddhav Thackeray maintained that he represented the real Shiv Sena.
• The fight was over the symbol "bow and arrow of the Shiv Sena". 
• Both the groups had approached the EC to to seek approval for retaining the symbol.
• The EC in August had asked both the factions to submit documents in support of their claims over the election symbol.
• The Shinde faction claimed it had the support of 20 out of 55 Sena MLAs and at least a dozen MPs.
• The urgent need for new names of both factions of Shiv Sena was also needed because of a bypoll of Andheri East seat in Mumbai.
• The bypoll will be held on November 3.
• The seat was left vacant after its sitting MLA Ramesh Latke died of a heart attack while on a trip to Dubai in May.

Trishul to rising sun: Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray had proposed the symbols of trishul, rising sun and mashaal as symbols to EC. They secured the third one. Rising sun symbol was proposed by both the camps and it was rejected by the EC saying that it is already with the DMK.

The party had previously been with the bow and arrow symbol since 1989.  Before this, they had contested the elections on sword, shield, coconut tree, railway engine, cup and plate. 

Why Uddhav Thackeray got the mashaal symbol:

• EC gave mashaal or the flaming torch symbol to Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena as it was once held by Shiv Sena in 1985 when the party had no dedicated election symbol.
• In 1985, Chhagan Bhujbal, the lone Sena MLA in the seventh Maharashtra assembly won from the Mazgaon constituency on the flaming torch symbol.
• Bhujbal, along with several other Sena MLAs like former CM Manohar Joshi opted for different symbols like rising run, bat and ball to fight the election.
• Today, Bhujpal is with Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).