From cycle to cycle pump? A look at Samajwadi Party’s options

A PARTY HAS TO PICK FROM LIST OF FREE SYMBOLS, UNLESS IT IS A REGISTERED, RECOGNISED STATE OR NATIONAL PARTY

NEW DELHI: The Samajwadi Party’s internal wrangling over its symbol — the bicycle — has fuelled speculation about what could be the possible symbol of the factions led by Mulayam Singh and his son Akhilesh in the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

They could be looking at arrays of free symbols such as “mortal and pestle”, “wool and needles”, or “dumbbells”, which are up for grabs, to make their pick.

The Election Commission is expected to give a verdict on Monday on whom among the father and son duo will get to ride on the bicycle in the February-March elections.

In the event of a spilt in the SP and the EC not being able to take a call on who has the legislative majority needed to wrest the symbol, the bicycle could be frozen and both sides be asked to pick a new name and symbol in the interim.

Grapevines have it that Akhilesh-loyalist Ram Gopal Yadav has asked the poll panel to allocate them ‘motorcycle.’ SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav had also made a reference to it as a possible symbol for his faction at a recent media interaction.

But the EC’s list of free symbols does not have the option of a motorcycle and so it is unlikely that any of the faction would get it. It does, however, have a ‘bicycle pump’, which comes closest to the existing symbol.

According to the EC rules, all parties have to make their pick from the list of free symbols, unless they are a registered, recognised national or state party.

The EC has a list of symbols, which are reserved for recognised national and state parties, for instance ‘lotus’ for the BJP and ‘flowers and grass’ for the TMC across the country. It also has a list of registered unrecognised parties and the list of free symbols approved for each state. No candidate can choose a symbol outside the list.

If parties that are recognised as a state party in one state choose to contest polls in other states, they will be allowed to use their allocated symbol only if no other party