TMC moves HC seeking ‘bicycle’ symbol for local body polls

Justice P D Audikesavalu, before whom the plea came up for hearing on Friday, recorded the submission of the TMC counsel seeking to club the earlier plea moved by it for a direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to allot the ‘bicycle’ symbol to the party on a permanent basis along with the current one.

Based on this, the judge directed the Registry to club the present plea with the earlier petition pending before a division bench comprising Justices R Subbiah and R Pongiappan. Based on this, the pleas are set to be heard on December 16.

Vasan had contended in his plea that the TMC, which came into being in 1996, was granted the ‘bicycle’ symbol during the Assembly and Parliamentary election held that year. Subsequently, in the 2001 Assembly elections, the TMC contested under that symbol.

However, after the merger with the Congress in 2002, it became independent yet again in 2014. As it is presently functioning alone, a plea was made to TNSEC to grant it the ‘bicycle’ symbol for the ensuing local body elections like the way it was granted for the earlier elections. Along with the ‘bicycle’, other symbols like ‘motorcycle’ and ‘autorickshaw’ were sought for. But TNSEC had rejected the plea. Based on this, he sought for a direction to TNSEC to grant the ‘bicycle’ symbol or any one of the other two symbols sought for. In the plea seeking for the allotment of ‘bicycle’ symbol to the party on a permanent basis, Vasan had submitted that ECI had refused to allot it the requested symbol without granting an opportunity for the party to make its submissions.