Removal of truck symbol: EC to give clarification to HC

A division bench of Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of India (ECI) to submit before it by Friday the written statement/explanation regarding its decision to remove ‘truck’ symbol from the list of free symbols in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states, which was allotted to Samajwadi Forward Bloc Party in the recent State Assembly elections.

The bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice A Rajasheker Reddy was passing this order in the petition filed by Samajwadi Forward Bloc Party, represented by its national president L Muralidhar Rao, seeking to declare the action of the ECI in unilaterally proposing to struck down the ‘truck’ symbol allotted to the petitioner party during the State Assembly elections held on December  7 last year, as illegal and violation of provisions envisaged in the Representation of People’s Act, 1951. Petitioner’s counsel P Shashi Kiran contended that the election commission has unilaterally decided to remove the ‘truck’ symbol bowing to pressure from the ruling TRS party, which has ‘car’ symbol. The petitioner party had contested the recent assembly elections on the said symbol.