Ahead of the union elections, the battle for party symbols is coming to light again. As on March 19, the Supreme Court in an interim order allowed Ajit Pavar, the clock as party symbol. The conflict was the NCP versus NCP wrangle in Maharashtra. The tussle of these party symbols arises when the political party splits. Each of the splitted portion of the parties claims the symbol.
Center to all power grabs and walkouts are two assets, party name and party symbol. In the recent case of NCP party, the Supreme Court’s hearing, NCP founder Sharat Pavar’s appeal against election commission, allowing Ajit Pavar’s claim that his faction is the original NCP.
In July last year, Ajit Pavar, the nephew of Sharat Pavar joined the Aeknath Shinde government along with eight MLA’s resulting in a split in the NCP. The faction led by him got the party’s name and clock symbol while Sharat Pavar’s outfit is now called NCP in brackets Sharat Chandra Pavar.
After Supreme Court’s order on March 19, Ajit Pavar can now use party name NCP and the symbol clock during campaigning and expectedly on the ballot till the matters are decided. Supreme Court also told election commission to reserve for NCP founder Sharat Pavar’s faction, now called the Nationalist Congress party, Sharat Chandra Pavar, their new symbol, a man blowing trumpet or turha.
This means no other parties likely to get the man blowing turhe symbol for the election. So what does election commission usually do in cases like these? Election commission tends to free symbols till matters are resolved. For example, when passvans LGP split in June 2021, election commission by October had frozen its bungalow symbol.
So neither of the split parties, which is Sharat nor Ram Vilas’s brother, could use it in the Bipoles due that month. There has been a dispute over AIDMK’s two leaves symbol, which was frozen in 1988 when the founder MGR died.
Gelalita got a rooster, MGR’s widow got dubs. After losing to DMK, the two AIDMK factions got together to reclaim two leaves. After Gelalita’s death, two leaves was frozen again in 2017. For many though, the two leaves symbol is today the face of the party after Amma.
