The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday registered their protest against its election symbol ‘broom’ being made available for Independent candidates in Jalandhar.
It came to light when AAP candidate from Kartarpur, Chandan Grewal, went to file his nomination papers and party workers noticed ’broom’ among the symbols available for independent candidates, which were displayed outside the office of SDM (Jalandhar-2).
After seeing the symbol on the display board, the AAP workers got agitated and complained to the staff of the SDM office.
“When we complained, officials told us that it was a different broom. They told us that AAP’s broom was in vertical position and the one independent candidate will get is in horizontal,” said Amarinder Saini, party’s youth wing leader. AAP leaders said it was an attempt to misguide the voters.
The SDM was not available for comments. District electoral officer KK Yadav said the controversy was due to a goof-up on SDM office’s part. “The SDM office displayed the symbols from the record of previous elections when broom was not a registered symbol. We have received an email from the election commission, which shows broom as a registered symbol of the AAP. So, there is no point in allotting it to any independent candidate,” said Yadav.
Punjab electoral officer VK Singh said symbols to the independent candidates are allotted after withdrawal of names and scrutiny of papers. “Symbols to independents are allotted after the list of candidates is final,” he said, adding why and how a broom was given an option for the independents, when it’s already a registered symbol of AAP.
{{/usCountry}}Punjab electoral officer VK Singh said symbols to the independent candidates are allotted after withdrawal of names and scrutiny of papers. “Symbols to independents are allotted after the list of candidates is final,” he said, adding why and how a broom was given an option for the independents, when it’s already a registered symbol of AAP.
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