EC TAKES BSP TO SC OVER SYMBOL

The Election Commission has moved the Supreme Court complaining that Bahujan Samaj Party, headed by UP chief minister Mayawati, was adopting stalling tactics in petitions seeking cancellation of its election symbol ‘elephant’. The EC said BSP had repeatedly stonewalled the commission’s queries on details of the number of statues of elephants and that of Mayawati installed at public/private places using government funds between 2007 and 2010 along with photographic evidence. It urged the apex court to direct BSP to furnish all relevant information sought by the commission in relation to the charges levelled by petitions, which accused the ruling party of installing a large number of statues of Mayawati and elephants on public expense.
In the petition filed by advocates Ravi Kant and Sukumar, the EC said BSP had taken a stand that EC had no jurisdiction to ask for any information despite the body being constitutionally mandated to conduct and supervise elections, which included allotment of election symbols and arbitrating any dispute relating to it.
The BSP had told EC that statues of elephants constructed by the state government out of its state budget were not similar to the election symbol of the party. Taking umbrage to such a stand,the EC told the apex court that it appeared as if BSP had itself decided the issue whether or not the elephant statues were a replica of its election symbol or not without bothering to furnish basic information sought by the commission.
The ruling party further told EC that the construction of statues was an action taken by the state government to implement the decision of the state legislature. “The political party cannot be penalized for actions of the government,” it had said.
Rejecting this contention, EC had written to the state on April 21 stating that its stand was untenable and that the party and the government would do well to assist the EC in providing the requisite information. But there was no response from the government, EC told the court.