The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition filed by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) in Telangana, challenging the allotment of election symbols which it said were similar to its symbol of a car. The BRS was objecting to the symbols 'road roller' and 'chapatti roller', allotted to a 'Yuga Thulasi Party' and 'Alliance of Democratic Reforms Party', respectively. The BRS contended that on the ballot paper affixed on EVMs, these symbols looked too much like its car symbol and would confuse voters. The Supreme Court, however, declined its petition, saying voters were intelligent enough to differentiate between a car and a road roller. Earlier, weeks before the Munugode by-election in November 2022, the BRS had similarly expressed apprehension over symbols allotted to some new political parties and Independents in the fray. In its petition to the Election Commission, it had urged that symbols such as road roller, camera, chapatti roller, television, ship, sewing machine and soap dish not be allotted, calling them too similar to its symbol. The BRS had also moved the Telangana High Court at the time, urging it to direct the EC to request its petition. Then too, the court had dismissed the plea, saying it cannot interfere in a by-election with the poll panel having set the process in motion. BRS leader Ravula Sridhar Reddy said the party had reason to be anxious. “We have lost votes in several constituencies in the past due to confusion among voters." According to the party, at least four of its candidates had lost previously due to this reason, or won very narrowly. BRS leaders give the example of the 2014 election loss of its candidate Manda Jaganaddam from the Nagarkurnool parliamentary constituency, with over 50,000 votes going to an Independent candidate allotted the symbol ‘auto-rickshaw’ that, they said, resembled the BRS’s car. Another example the party cites is the Dubbaka bypoll in 2020, which the BJP won by a slender margin of 1,400 votes, and where Independent candidate Bandaru Nagaraju had the chapatti-roller symbol and polled more than 3,700 votes. The two parties over whose symbols the BRS is apprehensive this time: Yuga Thulasi Party; symbol road roller The Yuga Thulasi Party was founded in 2016 by Kolisetty Shiva Kumar, 46, a businessman, agriculturist and social worker, who runs a large cow shelter on the outskirts of Hyderabad called the Gau Maha Kshetram. At least 1,000 cows are sheltered here at any given time. Recently, he wrote to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao seeking 1,108 acres of government land to establish another gaushala. Incidentally, the Yuga Thalasi Party had also contested the Munugode bypoll, winning 1,880 votes. Then too the BRS had opposed the allotment of the road roller symbol to it. Founder Kolisetty Kumar is famous for another reason. It was he who actually "founded" the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party, now better known as YSRCP, in 2010. A staunch follower of the late Congress leader Y S Rajashekara Reddy, he "handed over" the party to his son Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in May 2011. The YSRCP, of course, is now the predominant party of Andhra Pradesh. Kumar calls himself committed to the protection of cows. “Most of the cows at our shelter have been rescued from slaughterhouses." He says he founded the Yuva Thalasi Party for two purposes: promoting cow protection and thulasi or tulsi. “I am campaigning to get the cow declared as our national animal and get full protection given to it. This is my sole ambition,” he says. Alliance of Democratic Reforms Party; symbol chapatti roller The party was founded only this April by 62-year-old E Seshagiri Rao Goud, a Supreme Court advocate who moved to Delhi after several years of practice at the High Court. Earlier, from 2004 to 2009, Goud was a Government Pleader in the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Goud says he founded the party with the aim of "encouraging people from the backward classes to join mainstream politics". “I started a Southern Political Academy in Hyderabad to train people in political leadership. We want as many backward class candidates as possible to contest elections, because other parties do not give them much importance. Our motto is to see a backward class person as Telangana CM by 2028. We will field candidates in all 119 constituencies and give 60% tickets to backward classes,’’ Goud says.
