The CEC was in Gandhinagar to review poll preparedness regarding the upcoming Gujarati Assembly elections.
The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday granted the ECI the nod to proceed with the hearing of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde group's plea for recognition as the "real" Shiv Sena and allocation of the party's bow-and-arrow poll symbol to it. Notably, the hearing was also live-streamed which garnered almost 8 lakh viewers.
Justice DY Chandrachud, heading a constitution bench, rejected the plea of the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction seeking to restrain the EC from deciding the Shinde group's claim over the “real" Shiv Sena.
CEC Rajiv Kumar said the that the Election Commission has a transparent process has a transparent process of the "rule of majority" in place and will apply the same when looking into the case.
"There is a set procedure. That procedure mandates us and we define it in terms of a very transparent process by judging and applying the 'rule of majority'. We will apply the 'rule of majority' whenever we are looking at it. This will be done after reading the exact decision (of SC)," the CEC said when asked about the apex court's order.
The SC's order could be seen as a set back for the Uddhav Thackeray faction. Uddhav Thackeray's government in Maharashtra collapsed in June after a coup split the Shiv Sena founded by his father Bal Thackeray. Eknath Shinde, who led the coup, went on to form a new government with the BJP.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court granted the Uddhav Thackeray camp permission to hold their Dussehra rally in the Shivaji Park. The court also rejected the Eknath Shinde plea to hold the rally at the historic park this year.
