MUMBAI: Udhav Thackery-led faction received a setback after the election commission recognized the Eknath Shinde-led group as the real Shiv Sena and allotted them the bow and arrow symbol. The unanimous poll order came after the election commission discerned that the Shinde-backed MLAs received 76% of the votes while the Udhav-backed MLAs received just 24% votes.

With this decision, Udhav Thackerey’s hopes to climb back the ladders of power got dashed. It was in June 2022 that Eknath Shinde turned rebel taking along with him a bountiful of MLAs, forming the government after toppling the short reign of Matoshree. Shinde since then was beseeching the election commission to recognize his faction as the real Shiv Sena.