The ball is now in the Election Commission’s court to take a call on which faction of the Samajwadi Party – the one led by Akhilesh Yadav or Mulayam Singh — be allowed use the ‘cycle’ symbol. The poll panel could also freeze the symbol and ask both camps to fight the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh elections on new names and symbols.
Late on Tuesday, the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi faction submitted its documents to the Election Commission to prove its claims of being the true Samajwadi Party that can use the ‘cycle’ as its election symbol. Earlier in the day, party MP Ramgopal Yadav met Election Commission officials and provided oral evidence as to why the Akhilesh camp should be recognised as the real Samajwadi Party. Ramgopal claimed that 90 per cent of the party’s MLAs were in support of the UP Chief Minister him.
The Mulayam-led faction, which met EC officials on Monday, has already submitted written evidence to buttress its case.
Given the shortage of time, it is increasingly likely that the cycle symbol will be frozen and both factions asked to choose new names and symbols.