Lok Sabha Elections 2024: An election symbol is an important asset for any political party as it's the only way to represent a party on the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). Besides its presence on the voting device, a symbol also represents a party's candidates and works as a brand logo for them.
Talking about election symbols of the two main political parties -- BJP and Congress -- as the general elections are approaching, the saffron party currently has 'Lotus' as its election symbol while the latter one is represented by the 'Hand' symbol. However, the symbols used by both parties currently were adopted a few decades ago and have not been there since the beginning when these parties came to existence. Let's take a look at the election symbol history of both the Congress and BJP.
Congress symbol history
Congress symbol between 1952 and 1969
From the period between 1952 and 1969, the Congress party symbol used to be 'bullocks carrying a yoke'
However, in 1971, when Indira Gandhi was expelled from the party, the election symbol of the Indian National Congress (R) used to be a 'cow with a sucking calf'.
But the old faction of the Congress continued with the old symbol which was 'bullocks carrying a yoke'.
Once again in 1977, when Indira Gandhi split from the INC (R) and formed her own faction Congress (I), the party used the 'Hand' symbol for the very first time and has been using it since then.
BJP election symbol history
Between 1951 and 1977, the election symbol of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (now Bharatiya Janata Party-BJP) was an 'oil-lamp' as its election symbol.
But in 1977, when Bharatiya Jana Sangh merged with other outfits to form Janata Party, it used to have a 'farmer and plough' symbol.
Three years later, when the Bharatiya Janata Party was formed after the Janata Party had dissolved, the saffron camp adopted Lotus as its symbol and since then, it has continued to represent the BJP.
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