EC should be careful in assigning poll symbols to avoid confusion among voters: NCP (SP) MP Sule

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule on Monday said her party has urged the Election Commission (EC) to be more careful in assigning symbols to political outfits and candidates for the upcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra to prevent any confusion among voters.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, she said a party delegation met EC officials and requested them to address concerns about "confusing" symbols assigned during the just-held Lok Sabha elections.

The NCP-SP raised the issue of similar poll symbols on the EVMs such as the "trumpet" and the "man blowing trumpet", said the Lok Sabha member from Baramati.

"These symbols had negative consequences for the party (in LS polls). As a result, we urged the EC to be more careful in assigning symbols to parties and candidates in the upcoming assembly elections to prevent confusion and adverse impact," Sule maintained.

Assembly elections in Maharashtra are due in October.

In July last year, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar led a rebellion against his uncle Sharad Pawar and claimed the symbol as well as the party name Nationalist Congress Party, citing the support of over two-thirds of the outfit's legislators in the Maharashtra assembly.

The EC had then allotted the poll symbol "man blowing trumpet" to the NCP (SP).

After the Lok Sabha poll results, Jayant Patil, the Maharashtra NCP (SP) president, had said the similarity between the Sharad Pawar-led outfit's election symbol and that of an independent candidate confused voters, resulting in his party candidate's defeat in the Satara Lok Sabha constituency.