Prevent allotment of reserved election symbols of one party to a member of another party, urges a PIL plea before Madras High Court

A public interest litigation (PIL) petition has been filed in the Madras High Court seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to prevent the practice of members belonging to one political party contesting elections on the symbols reserved for another party.

M.L. Ravi, president of Desiya Makkal Sakthi Katchi, has filed the petition through his counsel A.P. Suryaprakasam. The petitioner complained that it had become a common practice for political parties to openly declare that their candidates would contest in reserved symbols of other parties.

He said, the allotment of symbols to political parties was governed by the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 issued by the ECI in exercise of powers conferred on it under Article 324 of the Constitution read with Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

According to the provisions of the 1968 Order, every candidate aspiring to contest in a particular reserved symbol must submit before the Returning Officer, Forms A and B issued by the president/general secretary/authorised signatory of the political party which had been allotted that symbol.

The intention behind submission of such forms was to make a declaration that the candidate concerned was actually a member of the political party, which had been allotted the reserved symbol, and that he/she had been officially sponsored by the party thereby entitling him/her to contest in the reserved symbol.

However, making a mockery of the statutory requirements, many political parties in the State enter into alliances with other parties and publicly declare that their candidates would contest in the reserved election symbols of their alliance partners and get those symbols allocated for them through misrepresentation, the petitioner said.

“The Returning Officers as well as the electorate are misled regarding the true political affiliation of the candidates. After the declaration of election results, such candidates function in the Legislative Assembly as members of their original political party rather than as members of the party in whose symbol they had contested… This practice amounts to misrepresentation and deception of the electorate,” his affidavit read.

Stating that he had made a representation in this regard to the ECI on March 12, 2026, the petitioner sought a direction to the commission to consider his plea and frame appropriate guidelines or regulatory measures to prevent the misuse of reserved symbols.

The petitioner also sought an interim direction to the Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer to issue a circular instructing the Returning Officers to ensure that only candidates who were bonafide members of a political party were permitted to submit Form B for allotment of reserved symbols.