E-Paper
Supriya Sule raises issue of similar election symbol
The EC allotted ‘Pipani’ (trumpet) symbol to independent candidates, similar to NCP’s election symbol — ‘Tutari’ (man-blowing trumpet) allotted to the party after the split in July last year
Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader and MP Supriya Sule on Friday announced approaching the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the decision to give an identical election symbol to independent candidates in the recently held Lok Sabha elections.
“The ECI allotted similar symbols to independent candidates and this created confusion among voters. We lost the Satara seat because of this confusion,” she said.
The EC allotted ‘Pipani’ (trumpet) symbol to independent candidates, similar to NCP’s election symbol — ‘Tutari’ (man-blowing trumpet) allotted to the party after the split in July last year.
In the Satara constituency, Sanjay Gade, an independent candidate who was contesting on the Pipani symbol, bagged 37,062 votes, whereas NCP (SP) candidate Shashikant Shinde lost the poll to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Udayanraje Bhosale by a margin of 32,771 votes.
In the Dindori Lok Sabha constituency, independent candidate Babu Bhagre, contesting on the Pipani election symbol, got 1,03,632 votes. While, NCP (SP) candidate Bhaskar Bhagare’s lead was big and it did not affect his prospects, and the latter won by 1.13 lakh votes.
Similarly, in Beed, another independent candidate, Ashok Thorat, with the same election symbol, bagged 54,850 votes. In this seat, NCP (SP) candidate Bajrang Sonwane won by 6,553 votes.
Meanwhile, Sule also sought the blessings of the mother of her cousin and Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar by visiting their house in Baramati.
