MUMBAI, January 28: In spite of his public fulmination against the Election Commission, Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray went and met the Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill at Raj Bhavan today.The close-door meeting, his first with Gill, lasted 40 minutes. The discussion ranged from Thackeray explaining his position on party elections to the two men discussing cartoons and cartoonists. Confirming his meeting with Thackeray, Gill said the commission was satisfied with the organisational elections conducted by the Shiv Sena. He described the meeting with Thackeray as `interesting'. ``We had wide ranging discussions during which he assured that the Sena's constitution will be amended in April, after the general elections.''
While he refused to elaborate on the meeting, Gill did mention that the two men discussed the merits of various cartoonists in the country. ``We also discussed Mr Thackeray -- as a cartoonist. We were discussing this because we realised that there is so little to smile about these days,''said Gill.
Today's meeting is being seen as a major step in thawing of relations between the Shiv Sena and the EC. As long as T N Seshan, to whom the Sena has offered a Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra, was at the helm of affairs of the EC, Thackeray did not get into any trouble with the EC. But after Seshan's retirement, Election Commissioner G V G Krishnamurthy served a show-cause notice on Thackeray asking him as to why the party should not be derecognised for his failure to hold organisational elections. Angered by this exercise of power, Thackeray shot back and questioned the authority of the Election Commission. Thackeray said that the internal affairs of a party were not the concern of the Election Commission and that it was beyond the scope of the Commission to teach political parties how to hold organisational elections.
But subsequently, much to the surprise of his own party workers, Sens held organisational elections well before the deadline set by Krishnamurthy and Thackeray was elected lifetime chief. Later, after objections by the EC, the party agreed that the life time tenure of Thackeray would be reduced to five years. However, Gill supported Sena's demand that Krishnamurthy should not remain present during the hearings of the Shiv Sena.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
