New Delhi: A week after the Uttar Pradesh election commission allotted the Samata Party it’s old mashaal (flaming torch) symbol for the UP Nagar Nikay election (municipal polls), the party said Friday that it will move the Supreme Court against the Election Commission of India (ECI) allotting the same symbol to the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena — Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray (UBT) party in October, for an upcoming bypoll in Maharashtra.
The Samata Party — formed in 1994 by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the late leader, George Fernandes — had earlier both complained to the ECI against the allotment of the symbol of Thackeray’s party and moved the Delhi High Court against it, but the HC had dismissed the case claiming it had no right over deciding party symbols.
The Samata Party had been derecognised by the ECI in 2004.
Samata Party chief Uday Mandal told ThePrint that while the party was thankful to the UP election commission for allotting them the symbol for the civic polls scheduled to be held on 28 December, they wanted their original symbol to be allotted to them for other elections too.
“In Bihar and other states also, we should be allotted the mashaal symbol. We are preparing for the 2025 Bihar assembly election, and we have had a base in Bihar because the Samata Party was also in power there once. We will go to the Supreme Court if need be,” said Mandal.
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has said that it will continue its fight to get the Sena’s original bow and arrow symbol, used by the party before it divided into two fractions earlier this year.
Shiv Sena spokesperson and MP Arvind Sawant said he was not aware that the flaming torch symbol being allotted to the Samata Party for any election, but they only wanted the bow and arrow symbol. “Samata Party used it (the mashaal symbol) long back, but their vote share came down, so the symbol became invalid,” said Sawant.
He added: “However, it was given to Shiv Sena only temporarily for the Andheri byelection (last month). We are fighting for our old symbol. The Election Commission works on the directive of BJP, so the dates (for deciding on the symbol) have been postponing. Now we have been called on 9 December.”
The allotment of the Mashaal symbol to the Shiv Sena (UBT), however, is not likely to have any immediate impact on the Shiv Sena (UBT), as there are no elections scheduled in Maharashtra at present.
Explaining why the symbol was allotted to the Samata Party for the municipal polls, Uttar Pradesh Election Commission chief Satish Kumar Singh said, “Samata Party’s used the Mashal symbol long ago, but their vote share had gone down so their claim for the symbol stood rejected. One has to separately apply for the registration for the Nikay Chunav. They applied and they got the symbol. The Shiv Sena and Samata Party matter is in election commission and that has nothing to do with these local level elections”.
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‘Distinction between state, national parties’
Dispute over the mashaal symbol started following the division of the Shiv Sena earlier this year.
In June, Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde had led a rebellion of Sena MLAs to topple the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra — an alliance of the Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress — and come to power in partnership with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While both factions had laid claim to the Shiv Sena name and its “bow and arrow” symbol, the EC had asked the two to choose alternate names and symbols instead. The Shiv Sena (UBT) had eventually settled on the mashaal (though nurturing hope of finally reclaiming the original Sena symbol) and the Shinde led Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena had been allotted the ‘two sword and a shield’ symbol.
The Samata Party had been merged with the Janata Dal (United) by Fernandes in 2003, but the idea was opposed by the party’s MP, Brahmanand Mandal. The Election Commission too did not officially recognise the merger, and the Samata Party was derecognised in 2004.
The Election Commission can derecognise a party if it does not receive at least six per cent of votes or win a minimum of two seats in state elections. For national parties, it is mandatory to have received a minimum of six per cent votes and to have MLAs in at least four states.
While earlier derecognised parties would lose their symbols, the EC modified the rules in 1997 to allow the parties to reserve their symbol.
Mandal had earlier told ThePrint that the symbol of mashaal had been reserved by the Samata Party, and was freed just in a day without informing the party, and allocated to Uddhav Thackeray’s party.
“We were not notified by the EC that our reserved symbol was being allocated to another party. We are preparing for Bihar elections in the future and we would need our original symbol,” Mandal had said.
Explaining how the Samata Party has now been given the mashaal symbol for the UP civic polls, Singh said the EC makes a distinction between state and national parties, and symbols can be allotted differently at the two levels.
“During the Nagar Nikay election, the election symbol is provisional (temporary). If the party gets more than one per cent votes in these elections, then they will be given permanent status in the state,” said Singh.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: Shinde, Uddhav factions have new names. But what’s the origin story of ‘Shiv Sena’ & its symbol?