EC sends 115-symbol list to law ministry, drops 'Shapla'

The Election Commission (EC) has proposed expanding the number of election symbols from 69 to 115 and has sent the updated list to the Law Ministry for vetting. Notably, the much-discussed ‘Shapla’ (water lily) symbol was excluded from the final proposal.

According to EC sources, while an internal committee initially shortlisted 150 symbols, the commission finalised 115 for submission. The Law Ministry may now revise the list further by either removing or adding symbols during its review.

The expansion comes in response to the increasing number of political parties seeking registration. As of now, 51 parties are officially registered with the EC, while 147 new applications are under consideration. Officials said the growing demand necessitates a larger pool of election symbols to avoid shortages, especially for independent candidates.

The proposed list includes 46 new symbols such as apple, mango, rooster, television, rocket, tiger, bullock cart, lion, sewing machine, and butterfly, among others. These symbols are intended to be allocated to both registered political partiesandindependentcandidatesinfuture elections.

Despitepublicdiscussionaround the inclusion of the 'Shapla' symbol, EC officialsconfirmedithas not beenincludedin the revisedproposalsubmittedfor the ElectionConductRules.

Once the LawMinistrycompletesitsvetting, the finalisedlist of symbolswillbeincorporatedinto the officialelectionschedule.