The two Shiv Senas, two NCPs (Nationalist Congress Party), four party symbols, and the pulsating grudge match at the heart of Maharashtra politics has forced political observers to go back to the first principles of political mobilisation in this Lok Sabha election
An important part of this mobilisation is the party symbol, providing an easy identification of political parties, a coda for their ideology, leadership, and community base. For Jayashree Ballikar, co-ordinator for the Shiv Sena (UBT) in Kolhapur, the change in her party’s symbol has meant a door-to-door campaign to publicise the new mashal (flaming torch) symbol given to her party after the Shiv Sena (now led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde) was awarded the party’s original bow-and-arrow symbol.
“Nowadays, everyone has a smart phone so it’s not so difficult, and as part of our regular door-to-door campaigns, we have been emphasising that we have a new symbol now,” Ms. Ballikar told The Hindu. She added that the Shiv Sena has also launched a big campaign on social media to publicise the new symbol. The Shiv Sena (UBT) came up with the ‘mashal geet’ or a flaming torch song for easy identification, but it is still short notice for any party to change public perceptions before the polls.
Shiv Sena (UBT) party cadres holds handed the “mashal” (flaming torch) symbol. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Sena vs Sena in Mumbai
There are several seats, especially in Mumbai, where the two Shiv Senas are going head to head. “The challenge is to make it popular among new voters, who may not know too much about the candidates as such,” said a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader.
The new symbol of the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) is the tutari, a man blowing the turha or traditional trumpet. The biggest face-off between the two NCPs is in Baramati, where sitting MP Supriya Sule, daughter of Mr. Sharad Pawar, is defending her seat against her sister-in-law Sunetra Pawar, the wife of Mr. Ajit Pawar, who heads the other NCP faction.
Baramati being the home turf of the Pawar clan, there is a high degree of awareness of the two symbols, with family members forced to choose between the two camps. “Pawar saab launched the tutari symbol from Raigad Fort, the capital of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. His speech there was enough for us,” says Dhananjay Patil, an NCP (Sharad Pawar) worker currently in Mumbai, who is working for the campaign of the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate from Mumbai North East.
Symbols key for illiterate population
Party symbols were considered important right from the beginning of electoral democracy in India, as the country began its post-Independence elections with universal adult franchise as well as a large number of unlettered voters. The symbols have now acquired a totemic appeal.
How important these can be was illustrated by the NCP (Ajit Pawar) leader Chhagan Bhujbal who not only has the distinction of having won the polls on the flaming torch symbol on behalf of the Shiv Sena in 1985, but also, as one of the founding members of the NCP in 1999, has the experience of what it is like to go into polls with a new symbol within a very short period of time.
Voter confusion
“First we were decided on the charkha (spinning wheel) as the symbol, they said it looks like the Janata Party symbol. Then, we took the clock symbol, which was seized, so we put the legs under the clock to make it look like a table top clock,” he said.
“The Congress and NCP fought separately in that election, while the BJP and Shiv Sena were together. Despite that, we scored well, and if we [Congress and NCP] had fought together, we would have won. When we went around asking voters in our areas about who they had voted for, people said they had voted for Sharad Pawar, but when we asked to identify the party symbol, they said panja or the hand symbol of the Congress, so we lost votes on that. But the point is also that this is 25 years ago, now everyone has a smart phone and media is there, the difficulty levels therefore are now minimised,” he said.
Party workers in the Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar) are, however, confident that by the Assembly polls at least, their symbols will be fully internalised by their supporters.
