Allot common symbol to 3 parties: SC to EC

Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi, along with Tamil actor Vijaykant and former IAS officer Jai Prakash Narayan will be able to use common election symbols they wanted for the forthcoming general elections.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to allot common election symbols to the three registered but unrecognized political parties — Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam, Vijaykant’s DMDK and Jai Prakash’s Lok Satta — in their respective states.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathasivam, however, elucidated that the order is interim in nature for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections only and the parties cannot claim any equity until the dispute was resolved.

The Bench also stayed the Andhra Pradesh High Court order directing the Election Commission to allot common symbols to all registered political parties in the state.

Before deciding to move SC, the three parties had approached the poll panel asking for a train engine (Praja Rajyam), drum (DMDK) and whistle (Lok Satta Party) as their symbols - but the Commission had on March 3 turned down the party’s plea for a common symbol on the ground that it was not a recognized political party.

According to the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order of the Election Commission, a political party would be recognized as a state-level party only if it has gained six percent of the total votes polled in the state, and the party should have secured at least two seats in any previous assembly elections or one seat in the Lok Sabha elections. If a party is recognized as a national/state party by the EC, it can reserve a symbol for its exclusive use in the nation/state.

In its petition, Praja Rajyam had said the party would be put at a disadvantage if it was not allotted a common symbol as a majority of the voters were illiterates.

Praja Rajyam was lavishly launched last year in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh and has not fought any election so far. DMDK was launched at Madurai in Tamil Nadu in 2005 and had contested the state election in 2006, while Lok Satta was founded in 2006 in Andhra Pradesh. It contested for the first time in 2008 by-election in four constituencies and could secure 10% votes.