Mumbai: A day after the Election Commission allotted the name ‘Shiv Sena’ and its symbol ‘bow and arrow’ to Eknath Shinde-led rebel faction, Uddhav Thackeray launched a blistering attack on BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was making slaves out of judges and election commissioners luring them with top posts after retirement.

“The Election Commission did slavery yesterday. An election commissioner can become the governor of a state after retirement because a judge has just become the governor. He (PM Modi) has kept such slaves around him,” Uddhav said addressing his supporters, who had gathered in a large number outside ‘Matoshree’, his residence in Bandra, in a show of strength, India Today reported.

The EC’s decision virtually closed Thackeray’s chances of inheriting the legacy of a party founded by his father late Bal Thackeray in 1966.

“The PM thinks he can finish Shiv Sena, but Shiv Sena will never be finished. I want to say this to his servants in government- people will decide who Sena belongs to,” Thackeray fumed.

In a veiled barb at Eknath Shinde, Thackeray said, ''The thief wants the Thackeray name, Balasaheb's photo, but not the Shiv Sena family.”

He challenged the Shinde faction to face his party Shiv Sena (UBT) in the elections with their “stolen bow and arrow”. “…we'll contest the election with the 'torch'. This is our test, the battle has begun,” he thundered.

Last year, the poll panel allotted the Thackeray-led faction the “flaming torch” symbol. Since the Eknath Shinde-led rebellion split up the Shiv Sena, forcing Uddhav Thackeray to step down as the chief minister of the Mahavikas Aghadi government, the two groups have been claiming themselves as the “real” Shiv Sena.

"Such a blow has not happened to any party in the last 75 years. If the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi think that they can end us by leaving their enslaved government machinery to us, then it is not possible to end Shiv Sena," Uddhav was quoted as saying by India Today.

He urged his supporters to go to every corner of the state and tell people their party name and symbol had been stolen.