A delegation of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) led by Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board B. Vinod Kumar have met State Election Commissioner C. Parthasarathi here on Monday and lodged a complaint against several poll symbols that visually resemble the TRS symbol “car”.
The delegation that also comprised former Minister and Jadcherla MLA C. Laxma Reddy and MLC M. Srinivas Reddy submitted a representation to the SEC explaining how symbols resembling car on the ballot paper/terminal had led to defeat of the TRS candidates in some instances. They brought to the SEC’s notice that the TRS had lost the recent by-election to Dubbak Assembly Constituency due to “roti maker” symbol that resembled car on the ballot terminal on the electronic voting machines. Similarly, during the 2019 elections to Parliament (Lok Sabha) TRS lost the election to Bhongir parliamentary constituency due to a symbol that resembled car on the ballot terminal on EVMs, they said.
The TRS delegation informed the SEC that the party had also lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India in the past on such similar symbols. Mr. Vinod Kumar later stated that the SEC had responded positively to the TRS request to remove the symbols resembling car from the list of poll symbols.
He explained how such similar symbols were creating confusion among voters. They had lodged a complaint with SEC to prevent such a situation in the forthcoming elections to GHMC and also requested the election authority to conduct the exercise in free, fair and peaceful manner.
