Dissolve Election Commission, elect commissioners: Uddhav Thackeray

MUMBAI: Terming the Election Commission’s decision that the Eknath Shinde-led faction is real Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray on Monday demanded that the poll panel be dissolved.

“What was the need to give the decision in such a hurry,” Thackeray said at a press conference at Sena Bhavan in Mumbai.

“We have lost faith in the Election Commission,” he said.

The election commissioners should be elected and not appointed, he added.

“There should be a proper procedure for election commissioners. A similar procedure is in practice when it comes to appointment of judges in the Supreme Court,” he said.

“The poll panel’s decision to “hand over” Shiv Sena name and symbol (to CM Eknath Shinde) is absolutely wrong. The decision should have been based on the timeline of incidents,” he said.

“The Commission had asked us to submit affidavits and list of party workers. We filed lakhs of affidavits, spent lakhs of rupees to submit them. But the EC completely ignored the same while ruling on the party name and symbol,” he said.

The BJP plans to finish off Shiv Sena, he said. ''Stealing our party name and symbol are part of a larger conspiracy,'' he added.

Thackeray said he has received calls from NCP chief Sharad Pawar and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee extending their support. He said he missed a call with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.