Why club registered parties with others, asks CJP

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, SEPT. 28. The State Election Commission has not given any valid reason for rejecting the Congress Jananayaka Peravai's plea that registered parties be given preference over Independents in allotment of election symbols, the party general secretary, Mr. P. Chidambaram, submitted before the Madras High Court today.

While Mr. Chidambaram has challenged the Commission's refusal to accord priority to the registered parties, the Janata Party has sought allocation of the `farmer with plough' symbol and the Janata Dal (United), `Arrow'. The New Justice Party has filed a similar petition.

Mr. Justice P.D. Dinakaran, before whom these petitions came up, heard arguments and reserved orders for Monday.

In its order dated September 19, the SEC informed the former Union Finance Minister that ``in the absence of any provision in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968, empowering this commission to register any political party, this commission is not in a position to comply with your request''.

Noting that the Election Commission of India had three classifications - registered recognised parties, registered but unrecognised parties and Independents - Mr. Chidambaram said clubbing any of these categories would amount to treating unequals as equals.

He also pointed out that the SEC had recognised the existence of these categories during the 1995 elections. ``Then why should it decide to merge the registered parties with recognised ones having reserved symbols?''

Mr. Chidambaram said his party should be allowed to choose a symbol from two lists of free symbols, and it should get preference over Independents in the process.

Appearing for the Janata Party, the senior counsel Mr. G. Rajagopal, said the SEC was not justified in refusing to allot `farmer with plough'.

Though the party was derecognised in 1998, it had a claim over the symbol for at least six years from that date.

Counsel for the Janata Dal (United) said the party had been recognised in Karnataka and Bihar. During the May 2001 Assembly elections, party candidates, numbering 12, were allotted `Arrow'.

In his response, the Advocate-General of Tamil Nadu, Mr. N.R. Chandran, pointed out that both `farmer with plough' and `arrow' were not present in the list of free symbols available with the SEC. Describing prayer of the petitioners as faulty, the AG said they should have first prayed for inclusion of these two symbols.

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Section  : Southern States
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