New Delhi, April 07: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea of former Andhra Pradesh Congress leader Y S Jaganmohan Reddy for allotment of a common symbol to his newly floated party 30 days in advance, instead of the usual two weeks, to fight next month’s by-election.
The by-election to Kadapah Lok Sabha and Pulivendla Assembly constitutencies has been necessiated following the resignation of Jaganmohan Reddy and his mother Vijaylakshmi.
By-elections to the two constituencies are scheduled on May 8 and the mother and son duo are contesting again from their respective seats of Pulivenla and Kadapah under the banner of Jagan’s Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party also known as YSR Congress Party.
Jaganmohan, through senior counsel P S Patwalia, submitted the common symbol for the party from among the list of free symbols be alloted immediately instead of in usual two weeks time to enable the candidates reach out to voters.
He sought a direction to the Election Commission of India for early allotment of the symbol.
A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph however, found no merit in the argument and the asked the petitioner to approach the Election Commission with the plea.
The counsel then relented and withdrew the petition.
However,counsel for the EC Meenakshi Arora told the bench that there was no provision under the law to make such allotment.
Section 10(a)of the Election Symbol (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 provides that the symbol to the candidate set by the registered unrecognized political party “shall be allotted not later than the third day after the publication of the notification calling the election.”
Resultantly, the candidate set up by the registered party may not able to get the symbol not more then two weeks prior to the election even though he/she may have chosen his symbol from the list of free symbols, counsel Sateesh Galla and N Raja Raman said in their application before the court.
According to the counsel, allotment of the common symbol in advance would help the candidates reach out to voters easily through the symbols as most of them are illiterate.
–PTI