After the rebellion in Shiv Sena, now the party’s Symbal Shinde faction and Uddhav Thackeray faction are claiming their respective claims.

Election Commission sent notices to both the factions of Shiv Sena, hearing will be held on August 8Eknath Shinde faction calls itself the real Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray challengedIn Tamil Nadu too, after the break in AIDMK, both the factions claim on the symbol.

Looks like the ongoing political drama in Maharashtra will end soon as the Election Commission has sent notices to both the factions. The matter will be heard on August 8 and it will be known who is the real Shiv Sena. Needless to say, Eknath Shinde has become the Chief Minister of Maharashtra by revolt and is calling his faction the real Shiv Sena, while Uddhav Thackeray has challenged this claim.

In the two big states of the country, there has been a split in two major regional parties. The Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in Tamil Nadu have practically split. The split factions in both the regional parties are staking their claim on the party symbol. In both cases, the Election Commission (EC) is expected to take a decision on recognizing a faction as the parent party and giving it the party symbol.

Why claim the party symbol?

The literacy rate in India was 12% when the country adopted the symbol with the names of the candidates for the ballot paper. Most of the voters could not read or write. Parties and candidates needed a symbol to tell their supporters who to vote for. Now election symbols have become the political identity of the parties. The election symbol continues with electronic voting machines as well. Despite the increase in literacy, the party’s symbol remains an important means of its identity among the people. Therefore, after the split in the party, different factions make their claim on the original symbol.

Who gets the election symbol?

Recognized State/Regional and Registered but Unrecognized. The Election Commission allots election symbols to these parties or independent candidates from their pool of reserve and free symbols. Reserve symbols are those for recognized national and state parties. Other and newly registered parties get symbols to contest from the free pool. If there is a split in a recognized party and both the factions approach the Election Commission. In such a situation, before giving the original election symbol, the Election Commission listens to both the parties. In this it is decided which faction is the parent party with the right to use the old symbol. In such a situation, the other group has to choose another election symbol. This process usually takes more than 6 months. The Election Commission adjudicates the dispute relating to the symbol of a party in accordance with the Symbol Order of 1968.

What is Symbol Order?

The Symbol Order deals with the split in a political party outside the legislature party. The division of the party is decided by the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly or Parliament. If the division is outside the legislature party, para 15 of the Emblem Order of 1968 takes precedence. It said that the Election Commission will listen to both the factions and investigate the facts which support their claim of being the parent party. It said that the Election Commission has the final authority to determine which party faction or none is a recognized party. The decision of the Election Commission has to be accepted by the factions. If an unrecognized but registered party is involved in this within-party fight, the EC usually advises both factions to either approach the court or resolve their differences internally.

When the Communist Party was broken

Partition can be a headache, initially it was not seriously considered by the politicians or the Election Commission. The first major problem came to the fore when the Communist Party of India (CPI) suffered a breakdown in 1964. At that time, the matter was decided under the Operation of Election Rules, 1961. The Communist Party of India (CPI) split in the backdrop of the 1962 Indo-China war and the Soviet-China rift. The rebel faction calling itself ‘Right’ approached the Election Commission for recognition as CPI-Marxist. This faction was dominant in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal. It presented a list of MLAs and MPs who supported the faction. The Election Commission examined the number of elected representatives and found that the split in the three states had more than 4% of the vote. Recognized it as CPI-M. The new party got a new election symbol.

When Indira broke the Congress,

Jawaharlal Nehru, her daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi were all from the Congress, but all three contested elections on different symbols. Indira was the only one who contested on all three symbols – a pair of bulls, a cow and a calf, and hands. Indira Gandhi was expelled from the party after the presidential election in 1969. After this the Congress had to face partition. The faction led by Indira broke away from the parent party. The Congress(R) recognized a cow and a calf as its election symbols. The old party, called the Congress (O), retained the original symbol. This was the first major division in which the Election Commission had taken a decision after the 1968 symbol order.

AIADMK survived Division 

This is not the first time that the AIADMK is facing serious divisions. In 1987 – after the death of AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran – there was a breakdown in the AIADMK. At that time there was a political tussle between MGR’s wife Janaki Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa. The matter reached the Election Commission. But before the Election Commission took any decision, Janaki Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa made a reconciliation with each other. Jayalalithaa then took complete control of the party. The AIADMK faced a similar situation after Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016. There was a tussle between several factions. In this, Jayalalithaa’s close aide VK Sasikala was dropped. Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dinakaran formed the new party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam. After this a ceasefire amendment was made in the constitution of AIADMK. Under this, O Panneerselvam was allowed as co-ordinator and EK Palaniswami as co-coordinator. Now that The ceasefire has ended. Now the EK Palanisamy faction took control of the party. O Panneerselvam was expelled from the party.

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