Days after the Election Commission recognised the Eknath Shinde faction as the real Shiv Sena, the Uddhav Thackeray camp moved the Supreme Court.
The issue was mentioned on 20 February 2023 before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud for an early listing. The court did not pass any order, and asked the petitioner to approach the next day "through proper process".
On 17 February, the Election Commission allotted Shiv Sena's 'bow and arrow' symbol to the Shinde faction. In a 78-page order on the protracted battle for control of the organisation, the Commission allowed the Uddhav Thackeray faction to keep the "flaming torch" poll symbol allocated to it till the completion of the assembly by-polls in the state.
The Commission said MLAs backing Shinde got nearly 76 per cent of votes polled in favour of the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly polls. The Uddhav Thackeray faction's MLAs got 23.5 per cent of votes polled in favour of the winning Shiv Sena candidates, the three-member Commission said.
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