Plea In Madras High Court Questions Allotment Of Lotus Symbol To BJP, Says Allotting National Flower To A Political Party Is Against National Integrity

The petitioner, T Ramesh, founder of the Ahimsa Socialist Party moved the court after his representations to the Election Commission were not acted upon.

In his petition, Ramesh submitted that the lotus being the national flower represented the entire Nation and thus allotting the lotus symbol to a political party was unjust. He also submitted that allotting lotus symbol to a particular party was a disgrace to the national integrity.

Further Ramesh submitted that free and fair election was based on equality and thus if one party was discriminated against another party, it would cause gross injustice and would also be against Article 14 of the Constitution.

Thus, Ramesh claimed that to avoid any discrimination, the lotus symbol allotted to the BJP had to be canceled and that the symbol should not be allotted to any political party – recognized/registered and independent.

Though Ramesh had requested the vacation bench of Justice Bharatha Chakravarthy and Justice V Lakshminarayanan to consider the case on an urgent basis, the court rejected the request.