The election to Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, which attracted country-wide attention with 185 candidates in the fray, generated further curiosity with some of them moving Telangana High Court on Thursday seeking postponement of the poll in the constituency.
Sixteen turmeric and jowar farmers, who filed nominations as independent candidates and were among the 185 contestants, filed the writ petition seeking deferment of the election to the second phase as they were not allotted symbols with only a week left for the polling. The petitioners’ counsel B. Rachna Reddy moved lunch motion on the matter.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice T. Amarnath Goud heard the matter in the post lunch session. After hearing the contentions of Ms. Rachna Reddy, the Bench sought to know if the petitioners had proof that they had conveyed to the Election Commission of India about their choice of symbols in the nomination forms.
When the petitioners’ counsel stated that they mentioned their choices for election symbols in their respective affidavits, the bench observed that affidavits cannot be considered as proof on face value. “We want evidence that you did convey choices of election symbols. Furnish us copies of the nomination papers,” the Bench said.
The petitioners’ counsel said all the candidates would not have kept copies of the nominations readily available and sought direction to the returning officer to present them before the court. The Bench directed the counsel to present copies of the nomination papers and posted the matter for hearing on Monday.
Presenting her arguments, Ms. Rachna Reddy said her clients were being denied level playing field with the ECI not allotting symbols and issuing specimen symbols though only a week was left for polling. With the election campaign ending on April 9 evening, they had only five days period for canvassing.
Candidates of the recognised and unrecognised political parties have the advantage of having a specific symbol since the election notification came. The 16 independent candidate are at a loss to compete with the them as they were not yet allotted a symbol, she argued.
Ballot paper
The petitioners also sought to declare rule 10 (4) of Conduction of Election Rules-1961 which mandate that the process of allotment of symbols should start only after completion of scrutiny of nominations as unconstitutional. They also presented to the court that the ECI had earlier said that ballot papers would be used in Nizamabad constituency because of the high number of contestants but decided on March 31 to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) instead. They requested the court to direct the ECI to use ballot papers for polling.
