Sharad's NCP symbol to be called trumpet, not tutari: EC

Sharad's NCP symbol to be called trumpet, not tutari: EC
01 Nov 2024

The Election Commission (EC) has ruled in favor of the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), allowing it to use a man blowing a trumpet as its election symbol.

However, the poll panel has barred the usage of the Marathi term 'tutari' for this symbol, opting instead for its English translation, 'trumpet.'

This decision was made after the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) claimed that using 'tutari' in previous elections had caused confusion among voters.

NCP's request to prevent voter confusion honored
Symbol exclusivity

The Sharad faction had asked that no symbol similar to their trumpet be allotted to other parties or independent candidates.

They had made the request to avoid voter confusion, which they claimed had affected their performance in recent Lok Sabha elections.

The Ajit Pawar-led faction of the NCP, on the other hand, will fight the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections using the "clock" symbol.

Ajit Pawar's NCP faction to use 'clock' symbol
Symbol allocation

Commenting on the decision, NCP (SP) leader and Sharad's daughter Supriya Sule said, "Our request was to remove that symbol (trumpet) from the list. However, that didn't happen. We had asked for a flower, but we were given the petal symbol."

"There was a confusion with regard to the trumpet symbol, and it hit us in the Lok Sabha elections. We presented all the data to the Election Commission. Elections should be conducted transparently in this country."

Supreme Court allows Sharad Pawar's group to retain symbol
Legal decision

Earlier this year, the EC had allotted the traditional "clock" symbol to Ajit's group. Sharad challenged the decision, claiming it caused voter confusion.

The Supreme Court later permitted Sharad's group to use 'Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar' as its name and keep the symbol of a man blowing "turha."

However, the top court stated that the name and photographs of Sharad couldn't be used by Ajit for political gains.

Maharashtra will go to the polls on November 20.