Andhra Pradesh HC rejects JSP’s election symbol petition

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea challenging the allotment of ‘glass tumbler’ as the election symbol of the Jana Sena Party. The petition was filed by Meda Srinivas, founder of Rashtriya Praja Congress (Secular) Party, seeking a direction to the Election Commission of India to produce records related to the allotment of ‘Glass Tumbler’ as the election symbol to JSP Was.

Petitioner’s counsel MV Rajaram argued that they had applied for the ‘Glass Tumbler’ symbol on December 20, 2023, while JSP’s application for the same symbol on December 12, 2023, was not in accordance with the rules. For JSP, senior counsel Venugopal Rao argued that the symbol was allotted on a first-come-first-served basis.
ECI lawyer Avinash Desai said that a party has to apply for the election symbol six months before the end of the term of the assembly. Since the term of the Assembly is ending on June 11, they invited applications on December 12, 2023. The lawyer said that JSP had applied for the election symbol on the same day, while the petitioner had filed the application on December 20.