The ‘broom’ (‘jharu’), the lucky election symbol of Aam Admi Party (AAP), has courted controversy in Uttar Pradesh with Naitik Party, a regional political outfit, staking claim on ‘broom’ as its election symbol for the 2014 lok Sabha election.
The Naitik Party has appealed to the Election Commission of India to allot it the election symbol of ‘broom’ (‘jharu’) as it had contested the 2012 Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh on this very symbol. Interestingly, the Aam Admi Party has won 28 Assembly seats in Delhi on the ‘broom’ election symbol and plans to contest the lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh on this symbol.
The Naitik Party moved an application before the ECI on December 9, six months before the lok Sabha polls, as per the rule, seeking ‘broom’ as its election symbol. Naitik Party founder and president Chandra Bhushan Pandey said that his party had the first right to get the ‘broom’ election symbol in UP as it had contested the last Assembly polls on this symbol.
“The Naitik Party was formed in 2010 and it was registered with the ECI. We contested 40 seats in the 2012 Assembly elections, with ‘broom’ as our election symbol so we are entitled to it,” Pandey, a retired judge, said. He further said the AAP and the Naitik Party were working on same direction though the former party had won 28 seats in Delhi election but we lost on all the seats.
“But if the AAP wants we can have a poll alliance with it in the lok Sabha elections in UP and they could also use the ‘broom’ election symbol,” he said. Pandey said if the ECI rejected his party’s claim, he would move the court. Meanwhile, the AAP announced to contest 40 lok Sabha seats in UP in the coming polls. The party also made it clear they it would field candidates against all the top leaders of all parties, including Congress national vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh.