KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday pulled up the Election Commission of India (ECI) for its decision to reassign the ‘envelope’ election symbol ahead of the upcoming bypolls in two high-voltage assembly constituencies, Nandigram in Purba Medinipur and Rejinagar in Murshidabad districts in West Bengal on 6 October.
The ECI has reassigned the ‘envelope’ from the Indian Secular Front (ISF) to the newly floated Democratic Trinamool Congress, a breakaway faction of the former ruling party in the state, observing that the national poll panel "should act fairly".
Referring that there are 183 free election symbols at the disposal of the Commission, the bench of Justice Krishna Rao asked what was the reason for the national poll body to reassign the ‘envelope’ symbol to a party contesting the by-election in Nandigram constituency, where the ISF has also fielded its candidate.
Justice Rao verbally observed that the symbol should have been kept reserved. "The authority should act fairly," Justice Rao observed during hearing, in the court on Thursday. Following a prayer by the ECI lawyer, the court adjourned hearing in the matter until Friday.
Justice Rao asked why the ECI was creating a dispute by allotting the ‘envelope’ symbol to the new party.
"Your authority is pinching the persons and creating legal proceedings; is this the way of the authority to work?" Justice Rao told the national poll body counsel during the hearing of the petition filed by the, challenging the reassignment of the ‘envelope’ symbol.
Following the resignation of the Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari Nandigram assembly seat is lying vacated.
Suvendu, who contested simultaneously from two assembly seats Nandigram and Bhabanipore in south Kolkata, a home turf of the former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, won both constituencies in the assembly polls held in April in the state.
The ISF, which is contesting the bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar, has instead been allotted the almirah symbol. The party argued that giving its previously used symbol to another political outfit in an election it was also contesting could confuse voters.
Senior Advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, appearing for the ISF, questioned how its earlier symbol could be allotted to another party while the ISF itself was in the fray.
The dispute over the envelope symbol emerged after the poll body froze the 'All India Trinamool Congress' name and its traditional flowers and grass symbol amid competing claims by the Mamata Banerjee and Ritabrata Banerjee factions.
As an interim arrangement for the 6 October bypolls, the Commission allotted the Ritabrata-led faction the name 'Democratic Trinamool Congress' and the ‘envelope’ symbol. The Mamata Banerjee-led camp was given 'Mamata All India Trinamool Congress' and the football player symbol.
