Overview
- After a Friday breakfast with NDA MPs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Eknath Shinde and six MPs who left Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena and media outlets reported he told them, “Do not fear, I am behind you.”
- Uddhav Thackeray held a press conference on Saturday to call the meeting an affront to protesting youth and said he will place published reports of the Modi–Shinde encounter before the Supreme Court as evidence.
- The Supreme Court is hearing Thackeray’s challenge to the Election Commission’s earlier decision to recognise the Shinde faction as the official Shiv Sena and award it the party symbol.
- Senior advocate Kapil Sibal argued in court that the ECI relied improperly on legislative majority to decide party identity, and BJP spokespeople rejected claims that the prime minister was trying to influence the judiciary.
- The dispute links legal questions about how the ECI and Lok Sabha Speaker allocate party name and symbol with political fallout from recent youth-led protests, and it could shape public trust in electoral rules and executive conduct.