Maharashtra parties race against the clock to popularise new symbols
The two Shiv Senas, two Nationalist Congress Parties, four party symbols, and the pulsating grudge match at the heart of Maharashtra politics has forced political leaders to go back to the rst principles of political mobilisation this Lok Sabha election.
An important part of this mobilisation is the party symbol, providing an easy identication of political parties, a coda for their ideology, leadership, and community base. For Jayashree Ballikar, coordinator for the Shiv Sena (UBT) in Kolhapur, the change in her party’s symbol has meant a door-to-door campaign to publicise the new mashal (¤aming torch) symbol given to her party after the Shiv Sena (now led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde) was awarded the party’s original bow-and-arrow symbol.
“Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone; so it’s not so dicult, and as part of our regular door-to-door campaigns, we have been emphasising that we have a new symbol now,” Ms. Ballikar told The Hindu. She added that her faction has also launched a big campaign on social media to publicise the new symbol. The Shiv Sena (UBT) came up with the ‘mashal geet’, or a ¤aming torch song, for easy identication, but it is still short notice for any party to change public perceptions before the polls.
The new symbol of the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) is the tutari, a man blowing the turha or traditional trumpet. The biggest face-o¡ between the two NCPs is in Baramati, where sitting MP Supriya Sule, daughter of Mr. Sharad Pawar, is defending her seat against Sunetra Pawar, the wife of her cousin Ajit Pawar, who heads the other faction.
Baramati being the home turf of the Pawar family, there is a high degree of awareness of the two symbols, with family members forced to choose between the two camps. “Pawar saab launched the tutari symbol from Raigad Fort, the capital of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. His speech there was enough for us,” says Dhananjay Patil, an NCP (Sharad Pawar) worker currently in Mumbai, who is working for the campaign of the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate from Mumbai North East.
Party symbols were considered important right from the beginning of electoral democracy in India, as the country began its post-Independence elections with universal adult franchise as well as a large number of unlettered voters. The symbols have now acquired a totemic appeal.
Party workers in the Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) are, however, condent that by the Assembly polls at least, their symbols will be fully internalised by their supporters.