In News
- Recently, the Election Commission barred the Shiv Sena factions led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray and current Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde from using the party name and its election symbol.
About
- Reason for doing this:
- In order to place both the rival groups on an even keel and to protect their rights and interests.
- To cover the purpose of the current Bye-elections and to continue till the final determination of the dispute in the matter.
- Symbols For Now:
- For the purposes of the current bye-elections, the two groups shall be allotted such different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols.
Election Symbols
- About:
- The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the EC to recognise political parties and allot symbols.
- Under Paragraph 15 of the Order, it can decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol.
- The legal status of Paragraph 15 :
- Under Paragraph 15, the EC is the only authority to decide issues on a dispute or a merger. The Supreme Court upheld its validity in Sadiq Ali and another vs. ECI in 1971.
- Types of Symbols:
- As per the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) (Amendment) Order, 2017, party symbols are either:
- Reserved: Eight national parties and 64 state parties across the country have “reserved” symbols.
- Free: The Election Commission also has a pool of nearly 200 “free” symbols that are allotted to the thousands of unrecognised regional parties that pop up before elections.
- Allocation of Symbols to Political Parties:
- As per the guidelines, to get a symbol allotted:
- A party/candidate has to provide a list of three symbols from the EC’s free symbols list at the time of filing nomination papers.
- Among them, one symbol is allotted to the party/candidate on a first-come-first-serve basis.
- When a recognised political party splits, the Election Commission decides on assigning the symbol.
Source: IE
