The Odisha Jana Morcha (OJM) on Tuesday moved the High Court challenging the order of the State Election Commission (SEC) that the party cannot use ‘kite’ symbol for its candidates in the polls for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) scheduled on January 8.
President of OJM Pyarimohan Mohapatra said that the stand taken by the SEC that a party would have to intimate it before six months of dissolution of the BMC or five days before the notification for election to use common symbol is misinterpretation of the relevant acts.
The party in its writ petition, prayed to the High Court to direct the SEC to accord official status to its election symbol kite, he said.
The OJM president said that the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 which says that a party would have to apply before six months of the dissolution of the Assembly for allotment of symbol by the ECI.
Mohapatra said that the 1968 order on symbols was amended on July 10, 2013 giving some concession to the registered unrecognised political parties to use one common symbol.
Rejecting the plea of the OJM to allow it to use kite symbol given to the party by the ECI for BMC election, the SEC on Tuesday said that the OJM’s application does not satisfy the guidelines under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment), Order, 1968.
The SEC maintained that ‘kite’ symbol is not included for independent candidates in the BMC polls and it is a new symbol. The SEC in its latest order maintained that the proposal of the OJM to use kite symbol for BMC polls is not acceptable.
The SEC had earlier stated that the OJM cannot be allowed to use kite symbol for the BMC polls. The OJM on December 13 had requested the SEC to consider the issue again.