Maharashtra EC freezes symbol on NCP(S)’s plea

Mumbai: In a major boost to the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, the Maharashtra Election Commission has freezed ‘pipani’ (trumpet) and ‘tutari’ (turah) Symbols, which are deceptively similar to the party’s election symbol ‘a man blowing the trumpet.’ It means no other political party or independent candidates will be assigned these symbols in the upcoming elections.

The state election commission (SEC) accepted the request of NCP (SP) to restrain candidates from using these symbols. In its order of July 16, the SEC froze the trumpet and turha symbols and removed them from the list of free symbols. The poll body, in its order, said the freezing of these free symbols is subject to the decision of the Supreme Court on the splits in the NCP and Shiv Sena.

“Finally, truth has won. The Election Commission has frozen the free symbols ‘Tutari’ and ‘Bigul.’ The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar)’s fight against attempts to mislead voters by using symbols like ‘Pipani’ and ‘Bigul’ as ‘Tutari’ has been successful. Now, only the sign of the ‘Tutari Player’ who is giving a new direction to Maharashtra will be seen on the voting machine!” the party tweeted on Friday.

Following the split in the NCP, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had granted the ‘a man blowing trumpet’ symbol to the Sharad Pawar faction. However, in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, independent candidates were also given the trumpet and turha poll symbols which reportedly led to confusion in the voters. As a result, in several constituencies, NCP (SP) votes allegedly went to the independent candidates.

Post the Lok Sabha elections, the NCP (SP) had asked the poll body to remove these similar looking symbols. In a letter dated June 15 to the ECI, the party said the allocation of similar symbols resulted in “a loss of votes to the party” during the general elections this year. It added an independent candidate with the tutari as a symbol “capitalized” on the ‘established brand’ of NCP (SP) and “managed to secure a substantial number of votes that rightfully should have accrued” to the NCP (SP).

In Satara constituency, NCP (SP) Shashikant Shinde lost to BJP’s Udayanaraje Bhosale by 32,771 votes. However, an independent candidate who fought the Lok Sabha polls on the ‘pipani’ symbol garnered 37,062 votes, which was higher than the victory margin.

Similarly, in the Dindori Lok Sabha seat, the independent candidate with the ‘Tutari’ symbol secured more than 100,000 votes. Despite this, the NCP (SP) candidate won comfortably by a margin of more than one lakh votes.

However, despite the symbol confusion during the Lok Sabha elections, the Sharad Pawar (NCP) faction performed impressively by managing to secure eight out of 10 seats it had contested in Maharashtra.