Newly born political outfit Swaraj India on Tuesday moved to the Delhi High Court challenging the latest rules of the state election commission that deny a common symbol to the new party.
Accusing the ruling AAP government of an “underhand attempt” to deny Swaraj India candidates a common poll symbol, the party has condemned the state election commission’s failure to provide it with a common symbol for the upcoming municipal polls in the city.
Appearing for the party, senior advocate Arvind Nigam mentioned the issue before a bench of Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed and Justice V K Rao and asked for an urgent hearing, after which the court allowed the case to be listed on Wednesday before a court.
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“While by the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) (Amendment) Order, 2013 dated 10th July 2013, the Election Commission of India itself allows newly registered political parties to have a common symbol for all their candidates for contesting their first election and States like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Kerala, Sikkim and Tripura follow the rule made by ECI, in a bizarre reversal of the rule and departure from all democratic norms, precedents and logic, the AAP government has notified the Delhi Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 2016 dated 5th April 2016 of the Delhi Election Commission, specifically barring candidates of new parties from having a common symbol,” said Anupam, spokesperson for the Swaraj party.
In its plea, the Swaraj Party has argued that the poll panel denied their request for a common symbol on March 7 despite a provision in the rules to provide a symbol to a registered but unrecognized political party such as Swaraj India, which is set to make its election debut in the upcoming municipal polls in Delhi.
Swaraj India claimed that having a common symbol creates a level playing field for a fair contest between all parties and pointed out that when AAP was a newly registered party, “it was one of the first to benefit from the Order dated 10th July 2013 of ECI when the then newly registered AAP was allowed to have the common symbol of Jhadu for its candidates in the 2014 Assembly polls.”