Not focusing on party funds, right now, says Shinde group

MUMBAI: With the Election Commission recognising Eknath Shinde’s group as the real Shiv Sena, political observers raised a question mark over Shiv Sena’s funds and finances, reports Chaitanya Marpakwar. While there is a worry in the Uddhav Thackeray camp that the Shinde faction will control the purse strings of the party too in the days to come, the Thackeray faction’s members said the EC order will have no bearing on Sena’s financial position or bank accounts, and the Shinde group said it was right now not looking at staking claim over these even though it could.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Anil Desai said, “Only the party symbol is the property of the EC and its prerogative. So they have decided on that. The EC can’t even dictate the party’s name, and we are going to challenge the order in Supreme Court.”

As per senior Sena members, the official bank accounts of the party are crucial for fighting polls, for taking official donations and for election expenditure. As per EC norms, parties have to file a contribution report to the poll panel for disclosing all donations above Rs 20,000. This was reduced to Rs 2,000 recently for anonymous political donations.
Shinde Sena leader Kiran Pawaskar said though they can, their faction won’t lay claim over Sena’s (UBT) funds or bank accounts right now. “Because we have been recognised as the real Shiv Sena, we can claim everything which is in Shiv Sena party’s name.” But even though we can claim it, we are not thinking about staking claim to the fund now.”