BRS urges ECI for removal of free symbols identical to ‘Car’

The BRS delegation was led by party general secretary Soma Bharath Kumar, MPs Venkatesh Neta and Manne Srinivas Reddy among others.

Hyderabad: Ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi on Wednesday approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) to raise concern over allocation of free symbols resembling the party’s “Car” symbol to any other political parties. A delegation of BRS MPs and other senior leaders met ECI officials seeking removal of such symbols and cited past instances where such symbols led to the loss of votes for the party.

The BRS delegation was led by party general secretary Soma Bharath Kumar, MPs Venkatesh Neta and Manne Srinivas Reddy among others.

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In a representation to the ECI, the BRS stated that on multiple occasions in the past, the Commission considered such requests from the party and deleted certain identical symbols like Hat, Iron Box, Truck, Auto Rickshaw, Road Roller, and others from the list of free symbols. They also highlighted that certain unrecognised parties took advantage of the symbols identical to the “Car” symbol and caused damage to the party’s loyal vote bank.

The BRS leaders raised concern over allotment of the Road Roller symbol to Yuga Thulasi Party in Telangana and strongly opposed the same. They were apprehensive that the similarities between the Car, the Road Roller and other such symbols, has high potential to cause confusion among voters, especially those from rural background including elderly and illiterate voters due to their size on the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

The BRS cited multiple instances where the voters got confused and pressed on the wrong symbol, instead of the Car symbol which was evident from the number of votes polled for such identical symbols like Road Roller in the previous elections. In many cases, the BRS candidates lost election due to the pattern of votes that were intended for the Car symbol got diverted to candidates contested on the Road Roller symbol.

Further, the BRS representatives cited other symbols like Camera, Chapati Roller, Doli, Soap Dish, Television, Sewing Machine and Ship which are similar to the Car symbol considering their size on the EVMs. They urged the ECI to remove these symbols from the free symbols list and ensure a free and fair election.