NEW DELHI: Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) seems to have another hurdle to cross before it goes to the hustings as one Rashtriya Krantikari Samawadi Party (RKSP) from Uttar Pradesh moved the apex court today saying that it, in fact, had contested the elections on the common symbol ‘rail engine’ during the 2007 polls.
Senior counsel Mukul Rohtagi mentioned the matter before a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly and stated that a petition was being filed in the course of the day and sought urgent hearing of the matter.
At this, the Chief Justice asked the counsel from which State the RKSP had contested the polls. The counsel replied that it was from Uttar Pradesh.
To this, the Chief Justice said the PRP was contesting from Andhra Pradesh and there should not be any problem.
The counsel replied that this time the RKSP was contesting from all over the country.
When the Chief Justice asked if it was a national party, the counsel replied in the affirmative. The Chief Justice again asked if it was a recognised party.
The counsel said it was not, but so was Praja Rajyam. At this, the Chief Justice said the court would hear the matter tomorrow.
The petition filed by the RKSP averred that its national president Gopal Rai contested for the Lok Sabha constituency from Varanasi in 2007 on the “rail engine” symbol allotted by the Election Commission.
In the ensuing elections, the party is contesting more than 100 seats in Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
In Andhra Pradesh, it was contesting more than 210 Assembly seats, the party submitted. It was on March 27 that the apex court directed the Election Commission to allot the ‘rail engine’ as a common symbol to the PRP.