EC clause on symbol sets hurdle for Prajarajyam

By Sarathi Verma

Without Common Electoral Symbol, Future PRP Legislators Will Not Be Covered By Anti-Defection Law

Before the elections for Assembly and Lok Sabha seats, Chiranjeevi’s Prajarajyam has to fight another battle and this fight would be as important for the party as the electoral battle. The superstar is now desparately seeking to convince the Election Commission to grant a separate election symbol for his party. Reason: the apprehension that if a party symbol is not allotted to Prajarajyam, then all its successful candidates will technically be independents. The implication is that the anti-defection law may not apply to them. Thus in the post electoral scenario, when horse trading ensues, other parties can poach on Chiranjeevi’s men, very easily.

The apprehension has arisen because many analysts have predicted that there will be a three-way fight this time leading possibly to a hung assembly. The largest single party or any other party that fancies itself to be in a position to form the government might seek to split other parties. “And if the MLAs are not elected on a common election symbol or a symbol that is not allotted in the name of a party, there would a dispute about whether the anti-defection law would apply,” an analyst said. The same argument would apply to MPs also — this time the fight for Delhi durbar would be close, leading to switching of some smaller parties and MPs.

Chiranjeevi, accompanied by former law minister P Shivshanker, met with the members of the Election Commission in Delhi last week representing strongly their case for a symbol for Prajarajyam. But the rules of the Election Commission are quite clear on this — only parties with a past record of contesting elections and getting a minimum percentage of votes are allotted a symbol. For first time parties, the norm is to choose from the list of free symbols that the Election Commission has. So all candidates of the party choose a common free symbol like a lock, a bow and arrow or a lion or whatever. Problems arise when in some constituencies some independent candidate opts for that particular free symbol that the new party opts for.

Usually the Election Commission gives preference to a new party, unrecognised though it may be. “The fact that a party has been registered by the Election Commission does not by itself entitle it to a party symbol,” an analyst pointed out.

Among other grounds Prajarajyam is pressing its case on the argument that the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) was able to successfully get an exemption and manage a party symbol right from the first election that it fought for the assembly. But that was following a legal battle where the TRS was able to convince the courts that it had earlier fought panchayat elections and this was proof that it was not fighting an electoral battle for the first time. Though the panchayat elections are not conducted by the Election Commission, the latter had no choice but to grant a symbol after the court ruling.

But in Prajarajyam’s case, the battle for a symbol is a difficult one because the party has not contested even panchayat or municipal elections before, unless the party presents its arguments based on the recent ZPTC polls.