 "Shinde camp arguments on constitution have contradictions: Thackeray group")
The Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena on Tuesday told the Election Commission that the arguments placed by the Eknath Shinde camp on the flaws in the party's amended constitution were full of contradictions.
The Thackeray faction also sought more time from the poll panel to complete its arguments in a case related to the control of the organisation, following which the next hearing was fixed for January 20.
Talking to reporters after the hearing at Nirvachan Sadan here, Anil Desai of the Thackeray faction said the Shinde camp had said that the party's constitution changed by Uddhav Thackeray was flawed and later it claimed that Shinde was appointed as the 'chief leader' of the party under the provisions of the same constitution.
"The whole argument was contradictory," Desai said.
Another Thackeray camp leader, Anil Parab, questioned the validity of the designation 'chief leader', saying there is no such provision in the party constitution to appoint a person to the post.
Desai also claimed that the documents filed by the Shinde camp to support their claim over Shiv Sena were flawed and not in order.
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The Thackeray faction also told the EC that it should not decide on the Sena symbol dispute till the time the Supreme Court delivers its verdict in a related case pending before it.
In the last hearing on January 10, Mahesh Jethmalani, lead counsel for Shinde faction, had told the EC that the Shinde faction had passed a resolution in July last year to split the party as Thackeray had made changes to its constitution and compromised on ideology.
The Shinde faction's lawyers had said that Balasaheb Thackeray had drafted the Shiv Sena constitution in 1981 and changed it in 1999 to include a provision for organisational polls on the direction of the EC.
The Shinde faction argued that Uddhav Thackeray was elected as the Shiv Sena president, but this was not followed by elections for office bearers.
On Tuesday, Thackeray faction's lead counsel Kapil Sibal sought more time to complete arguments, on which the EC agreed and posted the matter for January 20.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)