Eknath Shinde’s Sena faction submit ‘peepal tree’, ‘a shining sun’ and ‘shield and sword’ as poll symbols

New Delhi: Eknath Shinde’s faction of the Shiv Sena on Tuesday submitted ‘a shining sun’, ‘a ‘peepal tree’ and ‘a shield and a sword’ as options for its poll symbol to the Election Commission after its earlier choices were rejected by the poll watchdog. Earlier on Saturday, the Commission had barred both the Uddhav Thackeray and Shinde factions from using the erstwhile party name and its well-known ‘bow and arrow’ symbol for the upcoming November 3 Andheri East assembly bypoll. The Commission’s interim order said the party name and symbol stand frozen till the dispute between the two factions on which is the real Shiv Sena is adjudicated by the EC. On Monday, the poll watchdog allotted the ‘Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena to the Shinde faction and ‘Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’ to the group led by Uddhav Thackeray. The EC has refused to grant permission to use the ‘trishul’, ‘rising sun’ and ‘gada’ as poll symbols pointing out that these were not included in the list of free symbols. The ‘rising sun’ also happens to be the symbol of the DMK, a recognised regional party. The EC had then asked the Shinde faction to give fresh alternate symbols by Tuesday morning. On Monday, the poll body had allotted ‘flaming torch’ (mashaal) as an election symbol to the Thackeray faction of the Sena and recognised it as ‘Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’. The Thackeray faction had earlier provided the ‘trishul’ and ‘rising sun’ as its options. Shiv Sena leader and now Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde had rebelled against Thackeray’s leadership, claiming the support of 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 55 MLAs and 12 of its 18 members in the Lok Sabha. After Thackeray’s resignation as chief minister of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition, Shinde became chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.