Mumbai: Did the confusion over party symbols cost Sharad Pawar’s NCP at least nine Assembly seats. Yes, looking at the votes tally this fact has been underscored.
A man blowing the turha is the election symbol of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar). However, the symbol trumpet misled the voters in many constituencies. In Jintur, Ghansavangi, Shahapur, Belapur, Anushakti Nagar, Ambegaon, Parner, Kej and Paranda rival parties smartly fielded independent candidates with the symbol of a trumpet, spreading confusion among rural and illiterate voters in these nine seats in Maharashtra. As a result the rival candidates narrowly escaped forcing the debacle for NCP (SP) candidates.
NCP (SP) candidate Vijay Bhamble lost to Meghana Bordikar of the BJP by 4,516 votes in the Jintur assembly seat, where the unknown independent candidate with the trumpet symbol, surprisingly garnered over 7,430 votes. Similarly this happened with Rajesh Tope in Ghansavangi who lost to Hikmat Udhan of ShivSena (Shinde) 2,309 votes. Independent candidate with a trumpet symbol got 4,830 votes.
Pandurang Barora, Sandeep Naik, Fahad Ahmed, Devdutta Nikam, Rani Lanke, Prithviraj Sathe and Rahul Mote who lost to this symbol trumpet with narrow margin.
Significantly, this is not happening for the first time. Five months ago during the Lok Sabha election the NCP faced the same problem. NCP (SP) candidate Shashikant Shinde lost to BJP candidate Chhatrapati Udayan Raje Bhosale by 33,000 votes in the Satara Lok Sabha seat, where the independent candidate Sanjay Gadhe, with the trumpet symbol, surprisingly managed to get over 37,000 votes. The same confusion also significantly reduced the victory margins of NCP (SP) candidates in other constituencies.
The NCP (SP) had appealed to the poll panel to not allot any symbol resembling the party's trumpet symbol to any other party or Independent candidate to avoid confusion among voters. The party got the relief from the Election Commission of India. The Commission barred the usage of the word 'tutari', which is the Marathi translation of trumpet. A man blowing a trumpet (tutari) is the election symbol of the NCP (SP).
The party claimed that it suffered and lost votes in the recent Lok Sabha elections due to the mention of the trumpet symbol as 'tutari'. The Election Commission made it clear that it had agreed to a request by NCP (SP) for prominent display of its poll symbol — man blowing 'turha' — on ballot units of EVMs, but refused to freeze the trumpet symbol.
NCP state president Jayant Patil said, “The candidates who have lost the election due to this trumpet symbol have lodged their complaints with the party. We are seriously thinking over this issue. After the consultations with the legal experts we will decide the further course of action”.
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