EC should be careful in assigning poll symbols to avoid confusion: Sule

Mumbai: NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule has said her party has urged the Election Commission to be more careful in assigning symbols to political outfits and candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls to prevent confusion among voters.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi on Monday, Sule said a delegation of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) met the EC officials and requested them to address concerns about “confusing” symbols assigned during the recently-held Lok Sabha elections.

The NCP (SP) raised the issue of similar poll symbols on the EVMs such as the “trumpet” and the “man blowing trumpet”, the Lok Sabha member from Baramati said.

“These symbols had negative consequences for the party (in LS polls). As a result, we urged the EC to be more careful in assigning symbols to parties and candidates in the upcoming assembly elections to prevent confusion and adverse impact,” Sule said.

Assembly elections in Maharashtra are due in October.

In July last year, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar led a rebellion against his uncle Sharad Pawar and claimed the ‘clock’ symbol as well as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) name, citing the support of more than two-thirds of the outfit’s legislators in the Maharashtra assembly.

The EC later allotted the “man blowing trumpet” poll symbol to the NCP (SP) led by Sharad Pawar.

After the Lok Sabha poll results, Maharashtra NCP (SP) president Jayant Patil claimed the similarity between the election symbol of his party and that of an independent candidate, who had the ‘tutari’ (trumpet) symbol, confused voters, resulting in his party nominee’s defeat in the Satara parliamentary constituency.