The Election Commission rejected the NCP-SP’s demand to stop the trumpet symbol

NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar. File | Photo Credit: PTI

The Election Commission on Tuesday (October 15, 2024) said it has approved NCP’s (Sharad Pawar) request for prominent display of its election symbol – beating a man. ‘shut up’ – in the EVM voting units, but rejected the need to stop the trumpet sign.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the NCP-SP conveyed to the authorities that its election symbol – ‘man blowing turha’ – was not displayed prominently on the EVMs.

“We had asked them to clarify how they would want their ballot symbol to be displayed at the polling station. The NCP-SP had given us three options for the ballot symbol and we accepted the first proposal made by them,” said Mr. Kumar. .

However, the CEC made it clear that the Commission does not want to interfere with the existing system of allocation of electoral symbols while rejecting the demand for the removal of the trumpet symbol from the list of symbols.

The CEC asserted that the symbol of the trumpet is different from that of a ‘turha player’.

Also Read: Sharad Pawar’s NCP wins Lok Sabha, Assembly polls

The Sharad Pawar-led party claimed that the trumpet symbol resembled a ‘turha beater’ which created confusion among voters during the Lok Sabha elections.

The NCP-SP argued that the independent who was given the trump card in Satara constituency got more votes than the BJP’s margin of victory Udayanraje Bhonsale.

Mr. Bhonsale had defeated NCP-SP candidate Shashikant Shinde by 32,771 votes. Independent Sanjay Gade, who contested on the trumpet symbol, got 37,062 votes.