Election Commission should be dissolved immediately and reconstituted through ‘proper process’: Uddhav Thackeray

Mumbai: Uddhav Thackeray today said the Election Commission “should be dissolved” and election commissioners should be elected by the people, two days after losing the name and symbol of the Shiv Sena, the party founded by his father Bal Thackeray.

Speaking on the Election Commission’s decision to allot the Shiv Sena name and symbol to the Eknath Shinde faction, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said the party name and symbol can be stolen from him, but not the Thackeray name.

“There is not a single instance where the party name and symbol were directly given to one faction,” said the former Maharashtra Chief Minister, hours after challenging the Election Commission’s decision in the Supreme Court.

“I want to ask you why are you all here? I don’t have anything with me, everything has been stolen from me, why are you still here? Even if the other faction took our name and symbol, they can’t take our Thackeray name. I was lucky to be born to the family of Balasaheb Thackeray. They can’t get it even with Delhi’s help,” Mr Thackeray told reporters.

He accused the BJP of destroying democracy with the help of democratic institutions.

“What the BJP did with us today, they can do it with anyone. If this continues, after 2024, there won’t be any democracy or election in the country,” he said.

Mr Thackeray also asserted that he had never left Hindutva, though he was accused of doing so when he ended his decades-old alliance with the BJP in 2019.

“I never left Hindutva, whoever is a Hindu should speak up now.”

Mr Thackeray said the Election Commission should have waited for the Supreme Court verdict on the disqualification of MLAs.