HC refuses urgent hearing on plea against BJP’s lotus symbol

CHENNAI: The vacation bench of the Madras High Court has turned down a request for urgent hearing on a plea seeking a direction to Election Commission to cancel allotment of lotus symbol to the BJP.

Petitioner T Ramesh, president of Ahimsa Socialist Party from Namakkal moved the Madras High Court (MHC) seeking to direct the Election Commission to cancel the allotment of lotus symbol to the BJP for elections.

The counsel for the petitioner on Thursday mentioned it before a vacation bench of the HC comprising Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy and Justice V Lakshminarayanan. The counsel mentioned to hear the petition urgently as the five states election (Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana) is scheduled in November in phased manner.

However, the bench refused to hear the matter urgently and directed to place the petition on the regular list.

The petitioner stated that the allotment of lotus symbol, the national flower of the country to a political party (BJP) is unjust and contended that allotting lotus symbol to a political party is a disgrace to national integrity.

He contended that his representation before the EC to cancel the allotment was not considered, which is against the principle of natural justice.