Sena factions get new names; Thackeray faction gets 'flaming torch' poll symbol
New Delhi, Oct 10: The Election Commission on Monday allotted 'flaming torch' (mashaal) election symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena, rejecting their claim to the 'Trishul' citing religious connotation.
In an order on the dispute in the Shiv Sena, the Election Commission allotted 'ShivSena - Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray' as the party name for the Thackeray faction, and 'Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena' (Balasaheb's Shiv Sena) as the name for the Eknath Shinde group of the party.
The Commission also asked the Shinde faction to submit a fresh list of three symbols by 10 am on Tuesday.
The Thackeray faction welcomed the Commission order and began publicising its new name and symbol on the party's social media handles.
"We are happy that the three names that matter to us most Uddhav ji, Balasaheb and Thackeray - are retained in the new name," Thackeray loyalist and former Maharashtra minister Bhaskar Jadhav said.
Earlier Monday, the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction had approached the Delhi High Court seeking quashing of the October 8 Election Commission order freezing the party name and election symbol of 'bow and arrow'.
The EC had said the interim order will continue "till the final determination of the dispute".
Since, the last date for filing nominations for the November 3 by-election in the Andheri East Assembly seat is October 14, if the two factions decide to contest they will have to use the new symbols.
The Commission also rejected 'Trishul' (trident) and rising 'Gada' (mace) as election symbols claimed by the two factions of the Shiv Sena, citing their religious connotation.
It also pointed out that the 'Rising Sun' election symbol sought by both factions was reserved for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is learnt to have taken a tough stand against the allocation of symbols with religious connotations to political parties.
The Commission noted that the 'flaming torch' symbol was earlier allotted to the Samata Party, which was derecognised in 2004. The Commission said it had decided to list the 'flaming torch' as a 'free symbol' following the request from the Thackeray faction.
The rival factions of Shiv Sena had both claimed 'Trishul' and 'Rising Sun' as election symbols. The rival factions had also listed 'Shiv Sena - Balasaheb Thackeray' as their first choice for the party name.
Team Thackeray leaders Vinayak Raut and Anil Desai were confabulating with lawyers in the national capital on the party's legal strategies as the Delhi High Court was likely to list the petition challenging the freezing of party name and symbol for hearing later this week.
The Commission had barred both the factions from using the name 'Shiv Sena' and the election symbol 'bow and arrow' in order to place the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests ahead of the Andheri East assembly bypolls.
Shinde had rebelled against Thackeray's leadership, claiming the support of 40 of the Shiv Sena's 55 MLAs and 12 of its 18 members in the Lok Sabha.
Following Thackeray's resignation as chief minister of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress coalition, Shinde became chief minister with the support of the BJP.
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FIDE Women's World Cup final: Humpy draws with Divya in first game
Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.
The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.
Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.
What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.
"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,
which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.
"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.
"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.
"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.
In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.
The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.
With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.
Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).
