New Delhi: With the digital age well and truly upon us, the Election Commission of India, it appears, has decided to keep up. The poll body has come up with an array of new-age free election symbols that new parties can pick from for the Lok Sabha elections.
These include a robot, a computer, a mouse, switchboard, laptop, pen drive, an hour-glass, television remote, CCTV camera and a toaster among others.
These free election symbols can be chosen by either new parties, Independent candidates or parties that want to change their election symbols.
This year’s choice of symbols is in stark contrast to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when the EC had offered free symbols such as a nail cutter, a gas stove, chess board and a blackboard.
Symbols connect with people
EC officials told ThePrint that the symbols are chosen keeping in mind things that people can relate to.
“When people go out to vote they should be able to relate to things that they see in front of a candidate’s name. That way, you can say that the election symbols have evolved with time as per the changing aspirations and lifestyles of people,” said a senior officer in the commission.
“We have included things such as the pen drive, a robot, switchboard, a mouse, laptop, which represent more aspirational things,” the officer said. “Other symbols such as a farmer (ganna kisan), a jackfruit and a kettle, which have a more universal appeal are also still there.”
Some 76 un-recognised parties have already been allotted some of the new free symbols, according to the commission. These include parties such as the Kashmir Development Front (J&K), a new party from the Valley that has chosen the laptop as its symbol while another lesser-known party, the Karnataka Karmikara Paksha, which fights for the rights of labourers, has chosen a bread toaster as its symbol.
Why parties choose a particular symbol
A number of factors play a part in a party’s selection of an election symbol. Parties typically stick to symbols that reflect their beliefs and core agenda but also have to rely on some luck in getting their desired symbol.
“We have chosen the slate as our election symbol because we wanted a symbol related to education to represent our party,” said Naveen Kumar, national President of the newly established Bahujan Azaad Party, formed by IITians.
“The laptop and the computer were also available and they do represent education but we chose the slate because we are targeting the rural area and laptops would not make sense to people there.”
Pramod Kumar Suman, a representative of the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), which has the ceiling fan, as its election symbol told ThePrint, “The ideological reason behind choosing the symbol is that we wanted to be perceived as a party that would bring relief to people, just like a ceiling fan offers relief from heat.
“Once we took up the symbol and started winning with it, people began associating our party with the symbol and now we want to stick to it.”
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The kinds of symbols
There are three kinds of poll symbols allotted by the Election Commission — one for the national parties, which are fixed, such as the lotus for the Bharatiya Janata Party, the hand for the Congress, and the elephant for the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) among others.
For a party to be classified as a national party, it must secure at least 6 per cent of the valid votes in an assembly or a Lok Sabha election in four or more states and win at least four seats in a Lok Sabha election from any state. It should also be recognised as a state party in at least four states.
Fixed symbols are also allotted to regional parties such as the “broom” for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), flowers and grass for the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the bicycle for the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh.
For a party to be classified as a state party, it should secure at least 6 per cent of the valid vote and win at least two seats in an assembly election and one seat in the Lok Sabha election.
In case of a new political party, it needs to apply to the EC and if it fulfils the minimum eligibility criterion, which is that of contesting at least 10 per cent of the seats, a symbol is allotted.
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