BENGALURU: What is common between a green chilli, pen nib with 7 rays, cake, diamond, road roller and a batsman? Difficult to guess right? All these are different symbols opted by the independent candidates contesting the Karnataka state assembly elections on May 10.
While the majority of people are aware of the election symbols of leading national parties like- lotus, hand, lady farmer carrying paddy on her head, auto and broom, voters will get to see some of the unusual election symbols opted by the independent candidates.
From the 28 constituencies in Bengaluru, the independent candidates have opted for more than 50 different symbols like - helicopter, laptop, rubber stamp, sitar, well, doorbell, baby walker, binocular, switchboard, phone charger, gift pack, gas cylinder, a man blowing a trumpet, football, walking stick, pineapple, grapes, gramophone, tube light, flute, tyres, air conditioner, spanner, peanut, CCTV camera, shoe, cot, etc are some of the symbols.
Mathew Idiculla, an independent legal and policy consultant and a visiting faculty at the School of Policy and Governance at Azim Premji University said “Independent candidates have to choose from the pre-existing list of free symbols offered by the Election Commission while filing their nomination papers. They cannot create their own symbol. They will be asked to give three symbol preferences and one of them will be allocated to them.”
Sharing the history behind the election symbols, Idiculla said “After independence, election symbols were introduced to help the illiterate masses to cast their votes by looking at the symbols. Cut from the past to the present, the literacy rates have gone up and in cities like Bengaluru people are capable of casting their votes by reading the names of the candidates”.
He added that when compared to major political parties that are easily identified by their election symbols, it has a limited role when it comes to non-major parties and independent candidates.