Sharad Pawar tells Election Commission to delist similar symbols
NCP appeals to EC to withdraw similar symbols, citing confusion and negative impact on party’s performance in elections.
Ahead of the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) led by former Union Minister Sharad Pawar, has appealed to the Election Commission of India (EC) to withdraw or exclude certain symbols that it believes are “deceptively similar” to its officially assigned “man playing tutari” symbol.
It argued that the allocation of the “trumpet” symbol to Independent candidates was inappropriate, citing examples from the recent Lok Sabha election where such similar symbols confused voters and negatively impacted the party’s performance in certain constituencies.
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“In total of nine seats, the party has lost 4,10,385 votes to the trumpet symbol due to confusion created by the deceptively similar symbol. It is a matter of record, that for the very first time, the trumpet symbol used earlier by random Independent candidates received such record-high votes as were fielded mischievously and benefited from the goodwill of the symbol of the party and the ‘tutari’ name reference, which further substantiate our concerns,” it said in an appeal to the poll body.
It further read: “It is pertinent to note herein that the confusion is not only due to visual similarity in terms of both being instruments blown by the player but also the name reference. As per the official Marathi translation by the State Election Commission, Maharashtra, even the ‘trumpet’ symbol is referred to as ‘tutari’ which is in direct overlap with the name reference of the symbol of the party – “tutari phuknewala manus”. Therefore, the proxy Independent candidates mischievously benefited and leveraged upon the overlap in name reference and it led to confusion in the electorate, the party said.
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