Bow and arrow or torch? In Maharashtra, confusion over new election symbols may help BJP, allies

As he goes around talking to voters in Maharashtra’s Thane, party worker Mayur Jain is focused on conveying two important bits of information.

One, that the party he represents is not Shiv Sena, but Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). Two, that the party’s election symbol is now a flaming torch or mashal.

“The candidate is the same,” he says, referring to the legislator from Thane parliamentary constituency, Rajan Vichare. He won the last two general elections from Thane as a candidate of the Shiv Sena.

To reinforce the messages, Jain, a ground-level party worker, has been sharing a video of a fast-paced Marathi campaign song that repeats two key words over and over: “Shiv Sena” and “mashal”. The video has footage of Bal Thackeray, who founded the Shiv Sena in 1966, with a mashal in his hand.

Jain’s sense of urgency is rooted in political developments in Maharashtra from a year and a half ago.

Till June 2022, Jain was part of the Shiv Sena, pro-Maharashtrian party founded by Bal Thackeray in 1966 and led after his death by his son Uddhav Thackeray.

Then, the party split, as Eknath Shinde, a leader from Thane, raised the banner of revolt. Fourteen Shiv Sena members of Parliament and 41 state legislators switched to Shinde’s side, while...

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