From arrow to aeroplane and a pair of glasses to a domestic gas cylinder, there is almost anything and everything used as election symbols by candidates in the local bodies’ election.
While selection of a symbol is not an issue for those who contest on party tickets since they would have an already established symbol to represent them, the same is a real challenge for independent candidates and nominees of smaller political outfits.
Selecting a symbol is always a tricky affair for them.
A lot of things need to be factored in. Its basic appeal, recall-value and symbolism are only a few.
The selection of a symbol has become particularly competitive with the number of candidates increasing manifold with the upgradation of several panchayats into municipalities, where the number of municipal divisions will be much higher than the panchayat wards.
If strong symbols like an arrow, which can hit hard, is what attracts some candidates like T. Jayanandan on to such symbols, it’s the strong familiarity and the very importance in people’s mind about a object like a helmet that makes independent candidates like K.K. Sasikala select the symbol.
Yet another set of candidates have strongly relied on the emotional quotient of sporting objects such as a football, especially in a place like Kozhikode, to choose their election symbol.
There are many candidates who are using the symbol of football.
They include Bhasi Malaparamba, writer and football correspondent of a noted Malayalam daily, contesting as an LDF supported independent.
“I myself was a State-level footballer for more than seven years and its only later that I became a football writer,” says Mr. Bhasi, who finds his selection of the symbol a natural culmination of his emotional engagement with the sport.
To cash in on the emotional bond many voters have for football, different political fronts here are also organising friendly matches between teams comprising candidates from different wards.
“Its exhilarating to see the importance the game of football gets even in the times of election,” says N. V. Subair, president of the Nainamvalappu Football Fans Association (NFFA) from the city.
