The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 26 July, stated that it would hear the plea of the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena against proceedings by the Election Commission of India (EC) on a petition filed by the Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led group on 1 August.
This comes a day after the Thackeray faction moved the apex court to restrain the EC from deciding whether the Eknath Shinde camp represents the "real Shiv Sena" and if it should be allowed to use the 'bow and arrow' as its election symbol.
The development comes after the EC asked the rival factions to submit documents by 8 August in support of their claims on the election symbol of the Shiv Sena, the 'bow and arrow'.
Thackeray loyalist Subhash Desai has sought to make EC a party in the batch of petitions pertaining to the split in Shiv Sena and has stressed the importance for the poll body to stay its hand, especially since issues ranging from disqualification of MLAs from respective factions to the validity of Shinde's takeover are yet to be decided by the Supreme Court.
The plea terms the petition of the Shinde group to get the poll symbol and the tag of the "real Shiv Sena" as an act of “desperation”.
Background
Political turmoil gripped the state last month when the Shiv Sena split with more than two-thirds of the party's MLAs withdrawing their support from the Maharashtra government led by Thackeray, and then siding with Shinde.
The fall of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was followed by Shinde being sworn in as the new Maharashtra CM on 30 June with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The top court on 20 July had said the petitions filed by the two factions of the Shiv Sena during the recent political crisis in Maharashtra raised constitutional issues including split, the merger of a political party, defection, and disqualification which may require consideration by a larger bench.
The bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, meanwhile, had extended the operation of its 11 July order by which it had asked Assembly Speaker not to proceed with a plea seeking disqualification of MLAs of Thackeray faction as sought by the Shinde group on grounds of defying the party whip during the trust vote and the election of the speaker.
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