'Will surely go to SC,' says Uddhav Thackeray after Shiv Sena name, symbol goes to Eknath Shinde

Uddhav Thackeray said his faction of Shiv Sena will go to Supreme Court as Election Commission on Friday recognised the Eknath Shinde-led faction as the real Shiv Sena and ordered allocation of the ''bow and arrow'' poll symbol to it.

"We will surely go to the Supreme Court against this EC order. We are sure that the SC will set aside this order and that the 16 MLAs will be disqualified by SC," said Uddhav Thackeray.

"I had said that ECI shouldn't give decision before SC verdict. If party's existence is decided based on number of MLAs & MPs, any capitalist can purchase MLA, MP and become CM," he added.

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 bypolls in the state.

The Commission said MLAs backing Eknath 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 in a unanimous order.