Telangana: EC removes returning officer who nixed candidate’s symbol opposed by TRS

Yuga Tulasi Party candidate Kolisetty Shiva Kumar approached the commission after the returning officer for the Munugode Assembly bypoll cancelled his road roller symbol overnight.

TRS minister K T Rama Rao objected to the action and pointed the finger at the BJP. (Twitter/@MinisterKTR)

The Election Commission replaced the returning officer in Telangana’s bypoll-bound Munugode Assembly constituency on Thursday after he cancelled a candidate’s symbol—road roller, one of the symbols the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi wants disallowed over “resemblance” to its car symbol.

The commission’s action against Jagannath Rao came after Yuga Tulasi Party candidate Kolisetty Shiva Kumar approached it, and a local court, against Rao’s decision past Wednesday midnight to cancel the symbol he had been allotted through a lottery system.

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TRS minister K T Rama Rao objected to the action and pointed the finger at the BJP. “The BJP is misusing its powers and constitutional bodies and this is the latest example,’’ he said, adding that “road roller” had been removed from the list of symbols in 2011 but was recently introduced to hurt his party.

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The commission replaced Jagannath Rao, who is the revenue divisional officer of Nalgonda, with B Rohit Singh as the new returning officer. It also sought an explanation from Rao and reallotted the road roller symbol to Kumar.

The commission, which wrote to state chief electoral officer Vikas Raj seeking a compliance report on its action, said in a statement that as per rule 10(5) of the Conduct of Elections Rules, only the commission is empowered to revise allotted symbols. The returning officer’s “order is void, being bad in law and facts”, it said.

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The commission also noted that the returning officer had not heard Kumar before changing his symbol, “which is against the principle of natural justice”.

Contending that its votes would get split because of confusion over symbols, the TRS has petitioned the commission to not allot camera, chapati roller, road roller, television, ship, sewing machine and soap dish—symbols that the party says look like its car symbol on electronic voting machines.