Spelling trick will not help this time
Yaadav” or “Rocky Tuseer” of NSUI, or maybe even “Rajjat Choudhary” or “Umaashankar” of ABVP, might seem like household names for many on campus, with campus walls, roads and pillars on campus, and even metro pillars off campus plastered with posters and fliers carrying their names.
However, chances are that these names will not be there on the ballot papers when students go to vote.
Minor spelling errors in the names of candidates, like an extra letter, is allegedly used as a ploy to avoid any action for violating the Lyngdoh committees guidelines and the orders of the National Green Tribunal. However, this may not work anymore, with the DU election office saying that it may start issuing show cause notices to candidates who have posters with similar sounding names.
The poster menace during election season is a real problem, with both the Delhi High Court and National Green Tribunal taking note of it on Tuesday. The Delhi High Court had sought the city police and civic bodies’ responses on a plea seeking ban on defacement of public property by DUSU candidates, and the NGT had pulled up authorities over the blatant use of paper in poll campaign.
The chief returning officer of DU, Rajeev Gupta, said that it becomes difficult to prosecute offenders as many of the posters have spelling errors. “If they say that is not my name, then there is nothing that can be done,” he said.
Fairoz Khan, the national president of NSUI, said that the posters supposedly advertising their presidential candidate, were for a Rocky “Tuseer” and not “Tuseed.” “This is not our candidate at all,” he said.
This defence, however, may not work anymore.
“This is simply a vulgar display of money... This time, even if the spelling is similar we may issue show cause notices... This year, in fact even in the affidavits the candidates have submitted with their nomination papers include a clause saying that they have read and understood the NGT orders and Lyngdoh Committee orders,” said SB Babbar, DU’s chief election officer. He however, added, that the candidates would still be able to deny that it is theirs.
Gupta, also added that it had to be dealt with as a law and order matter, and maybe the police would need to get more involved.
Posters and fliers are important for the election, and to reach the large student body in the limited time available for campaigning, said members of student outfits. However, parties said that they do not encourage it.
“Candidates are not chosen based merely on the number of posters or money. We look at how much have they worked, and if they can serve the student interests,” said Saket Bahuguna, the ABVP spokesperson.