The Parliamentary office of the Shiv Sena has been allotted to the Eknath Shinde faction days after the Election Commission (EC) ruled that the group was the original party.
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In reply to a letter by Rahul Shewale, the Shinde faction’s floor leader in the lower house, the Lok Sabha Secretariat informed that the designated room for the Shiv Sena office in the Parliament building has been allotted to the party.
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The letter from the Lok Sabha Secretariat said that room no. 128 in the Parliament House has been allotted to the Shiv Sena party. Both the Sena factions had been using the party office till date.
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The Election Commission (EC) had on Friday allotted the name “Shiv Sena” and symbol “Bow and Arrow” to the Shinde faction recognizing it in effect as the original party founded by Balasaheb Thackerey.
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The Commission said it based its decision on a “test on majority” as the Eknath Shinde group of MLAs had got nearly 76% of votes polled for the 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, while the Uddhav Thackeray faction MLAs got 23.5% of votes.
Following this, Mr. Shewale had on February 18 written to the Lok Sabha Secretariat seeking allotment of the office for the party.
Mr. Shinde had walked out of the MVA government of Maharashtra with 40 MLAs in a high-voltage revolt last year. He then became the Chief Minister with the support of the BJP. His faction has before the EC claimed the support of 40 of the Shiv Sena’s 56 MLAs and 13 of the 18 members in the Lok Sabha.