With just two days left for polling in Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency, the lack of awareness among voters about Ram Jethmalani’s election symbol is causing jitters in his camp.Jethmalani’s poll symbol is two candles but voters — fed on a rich diet of lotus, cycle, hand and elephant symbols — are virtually not aware of this. His campaign managers face a tough task in spreading awareness about the symbol, considering that nearly 50 per cent of the 17 lakh voters here are illiterate. It is also a race against time for them since Jethmalani began his campaign late.Jethmalani’s chief election agent Sanjay Singh admitted that confusion prevails over the Independent candidate’s election symbol. ‘‘Our election workers, which include Congressmen and volunteers, have started distributing pamphlets in all Assembly segments to educate voters about the two candles poll symbol,’’ he says.AICC secretary Subodh Kant Sahay, who is monitoring Jethmalani’s campaign on behalf of the Congress, said: ‘‘The Congress has divided the constituency into 130 zones and 26 sectors to facilitate canvassing. And an important task before the workers is to make voters aware of the poll symbol.’’ But the symbol is not the only source of worry for Jethmalani’s campaign managers. They will also have to make voters aware of Jethmalani’s serial number on the EVM, which is different from that on the candidate list. This is because each EVM can accommodate 16 names, while there are 32 candidates in the fray here.
