When it comes to party symbol, size does matter

COIMBATORE: The poll wing of the city corporation realised that size does matter when a few DMDK candidates officially lodged a complaint stating that their ‘drum’ symbol was depicted smaller in size when compared to the other election symbols printed on sheets that are fixed on the ballot units of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
They were forced to withdraw more than 100 such sheets that were printed and fixed on the ballot units of the EVMs to be used in seven wards across corporation limits.An emergency meeting of the candidates was called after other political outfits also started comparing the size of their party symbols printed.
“They had notified us that the drum symbol was smaller in size and we have withdrawn those sheets and replaced them with newly printed ones. A meeting with the candidates was held and the matter has been sorted out,” said a senior corporation official.
The poll department issued a notice to its poll officials deployed across 100 wards, asking them to ensure that no other candidate has any grievance regarding symbol size. As per the norms, the sheets are printed at selected local presses that have been approved by the district collector for the printing of election related materials. Each candidate and their symbol is printed on it and fixed onto the ballot unit of the voting machine next to the voting button so that the voter can press the button corresponding to their candidate and symbol, to cast their votes. The problem was detected in seven wards including ward no 77 and ward no 83 of the corporation where more than 100 sheets had to be withdrawn.
“The issue has been sorted out for now after we formally raised the issue with the poll officials,” said R Kannadasan, DMDK city leader. The present norm is that each name and symbol should be printed on the sheet in the allotted 29 mm gap.
The city corporation has 100 wards and there are 1,101 polling booths where more than 10 lakh voters are expected to cast their votes for the ward councillors and city mayor posts.
“The corporation officials have replaced the ballot papers and also held talks with the candidates on Thursday,” said A Radhakrishnan, BJP Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam candidate from ward no 44.