AN UNDOCUMENTED WONDER : The Making of the Great Indian Elections

by S.Y. Quraishi

The Commission heard the representation to freeze the elephant symbol in its quasi-judicial capacity assisted by a battery of lawyers from both sides. It decided that it would be an extreme step to freeze the symbol, though there was a lot of merit in the complaint that a huge amount of public money had been spent in building these statues, which were in fact logos of the ruling party. I consider it desirable to reproduce the operative parts of our order. It has to be borne in mind that the BSP is a National party and the symbol ‘elephant’ is reserved for it in the whole of the country, except Assam. Before taking any decision with regard to the withdrawal of the above symbol from the party, as prayed for by the petitioners, the Commission has to carefully weigh the implications which such withdrawal of symbol may have and cause confusion in the minds of millions of electors, apart from members, supporters and workers of the party, across the country, who identify the party with its symbol ‘elephant’, on account of some action taken by one of the State Governments[…] 44. However, at the time of elections, the Commission would, no doubt, take appropriate steps and measures to see that the statutes of Ms. Mayawati and BSP’s symbol ‘elephant’ do not disturb the level playing field and give undue advantage to BSP vis-á-vis other political parties.