Months after the sensational vertical split in Shiv Sena triggered an intense court battle between Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray over the control of party symbol and name, another Maharashtra-centric party - National Communist Party (NCP) — is headed to the same fate. The tussle between uncle Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar has reached the Election Commission's doors. Amid the tug of war, the central poll authority may freeze the party symbol — an analogue alarm clock. Ajit Pawar, who is now claiming to head the original NCP, has staked claim of the symbol and party name. However, this is not the first time that the Election Commission has exercised its power to freeze any political party symbol. The Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 empowers the ECI to recognise political parties and allot symbols.
A look at such instances:
Shiv Sena party symbol
Just a year before the NCP episode, the Shiv Sena was also engaged in a bitter fight over party symbol and name. The two factions of the Shiv Sena, which is a recognised state party in Maharashtra, led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde were engaged in a tussle for recognition as the 'real' Shiv Sena. Following which in an interim order, the ECI temporarily froze the ‘bow and arrow’ election symbol of the Shiv Sena. For the time being, two Shiv Sena factions led by Eknath Shinde and Uddhav Thackeray are using Dhal Talwar and Mashal as new symbols.
Lok Janshakti Party symbol
In June 2021, the EC froze the ‘Bungalow’ symbol of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) following a party split by Chirag Paswan, son of the late Ram Vilas Paswan, and the other was led by Pashupati Kumar Paras. The EC prohibited both factions to use ‘Bungalow’ as their symbols. Pashupati Kumar Paras rebelled against Chirag Paswan by siding with six Members of Parliament - Veena Devi (Vaishali), Paras (Hajipur), Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser (Khagaria), Prince Raj (Samastipur) and Chandan Singh (Nawada) - ousted the Paswan junior as their leader and put Paras on the post.
AIADMK symbol
The battle for symbol started in 2016 after the demise of the then-chief minister Jayalalithaa in December. While both the AIADMK faction - one was led by O Panneerselvam and the other was led by VK Sasikala - fought over the symbol, the EC froze it. While passing its verdict, the poll body said a deeper examination would be needed after examining 20,000 pages of evidence. Hence before concluding the issue, both factions cannot use the official symbol or name. Then in March 2017, the EC gave both factions two different names - O Panneerselvam’s faction was named AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma), and Edappadi K Palaniswami’s faction known as AIADMK (Amma). However, six months after the split, both factions formally merged in August 2017.
Janata Party symbol
The original symbol of the Janata Party (Farmer with a Plough in a circle) was frozen after it merged with the Janata Dal. The original symbol of the Janata Dal (Wheel) was also frozen after it split into various regional parties. In 1994, George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar founded Samata Party after a split from the earlier Janta Dal. The Election Commission had then given a 'flaming torch' symbol to Samata Party.
