Day after he lost Shiv Sena name and symbol, Uddhav’s Twitter bio acts up

In a bizarre development, a day after Uddhav Thackeray lost the Shiv Sena name, and symbol to the Eknath Shinde faction, the Twitter bio on the former Mumbai Chief Minister’s official page seems to be acting up. When one clicks on the handle @ShivSena mentioned on the bio, it lands on a page of one Ashutosh Singh from Kannauj, which has now been changed to Rock and Roll.

Thackeray’s Twitter bio reads, “Official account of the Office of @ShivSena Party President Shri Uddhav Saheb Thackeray, Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra.”

The New Indian reached out to senior leader of the Uddhav faction, Sanjay Raut over the phone and WhatsApp. We brought the error to his notice over message. However, he is yet to respond to our queries.

We also spoke to several local journalists, who cover political developments in the state. A senior journalist with a leading newspaper published from Pune, who has been closely following the Sena drama over the last few months said, “It is also possible that this mischief was done a few days back and and has come to notice only now. It is strange that Uddhav Thackeray’s social media team is yet to notice it.”

Twitter users have also started to notice the error. One Twitter user said, “why is Uddhav Thackeray promoting Ashutosh Singh?”

The fight for Shiv Sena founder late Balasaheb Thackeray’s legacy took an interesting turn on Friday, February 17, when his protégé and current Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde defeated his son and former state CM Uddhav Thackeray.

The Election Commission of India, keeping emotions at bay and going by the rationale of numbers, decided to give the party name ‘Shiv Sena’ and the symbol of ‘bow and arrow’ to the faction led by Maharashtra CM, landing a big blow to the faction led by Uddhav.

In its 78-page final order in the dispute, ECI said, “The outcome of the majority test in the legislative wing reflects the qualitative superiority of petitioner (Eknath Shinde).”

Citing numbers, ECI further added, “Uddhav Thackeray faction MLAs got 23.5 percent of votes polled in favour of 55 winning Shiv Sena candidates in Maharashtra in the 2019 polls. Meanwhile, MLAs backing Eknath Shinde got nearly 76 percent votes.”

Hailing the decision of ECI, CM Shinde said, “We set up the government in Maharashtra (with BJP) last year keeping in mind the thoughts of Balasaheb. This is the victory of Balasaheb’s legacy.”

As soon as the decision came, CM Shinde added the bow and arrow symbol and the party name ‘Shiv Sena’ to his Twitter handle.