Kolkata, Sep 24 (IANS) A single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday criticised the role of the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the latter’s decision to withdraw the “envelop” symbol earlier allotted to the All India Secular Front (AISF) and allot the symbol to Ritabrata Banerjee-led faction in Trinamool Congress just before the forthcoming bypolls for Nandigram Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district and Rejinagar Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district of West Bengal next month.

AISF, with Nawsad Siddique, as the lone party representative in West Bengal Assembly, is contesting the Nandigram bypoll, scheduled on October 6.

However, this time, AISF will have to contest with “almirah” symbol, as the Nawsad Siddique-led party’s earlier symbol of “envelop” had been allotted earlier this month by the ECI to Ritabrata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress faction, which has also been allotted the new name of “Democratic Trinamool Congress”.

Earlier this week, Siddique approached the Calcutta High Court challenging the ECI decision on “envelop” symbol.

His contention was that there was no reason for withdrawal of the “envelop” symbol when he contested and got elected with that symbol from the Bhangar Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district twice, first in 2021 and then in 2026.

The matter came up for hearing at Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Krishna Rao on Thursday and during the hearing, Justice Rao criticised the Commission over the latter’s decision on the “envelop” symbol.

Justice Rao asked why the ECI had chosen the ‘envelope’ symbol out of 183 available choices of “free symbols” to the Ritabrata-led Trinamool Congress faction, when the same symbol was already in use by the AISF.

Justice Rao also said that the Commission should have acted more fairly and said that such mid-election decisions created unnecessary confusion and also create burden on the Judiciary.

He added that the ECI should have kept the “envelop” symbol reserved instead of allotting it to another active political leader in the same election.

In his counterargument, the ECI’s counsel said that unrecognised political parties like AISF do not hold a permanent right to a specific reserved symbol.

–IANS

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