Plural Party moved Delhi HC, seeks to use chessboard symbol to contest Bihar Assembly polls

By Sushil Batra
New Delhi [India], October 15 : The Plurals Party from Bihar on Thursday approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Election Commission to allow it to use the chessboard symbol to contest the upcoming Assembly polls in Bihar.
Pushpam Priyam Chaudhary, President of the Plurals Party through party general secretary, has approached the High Court to allow the members of the Plurals Party to file nomination and contest the first phase of Bihar Assembly Election, 2020 scheduled to be held on October 28.
Advocates Amit Kumar Sharma and Satyam Singh Rajput, counsel for the petitioner, have submitted that the petitioner is aggrieved by the fact that despite following the law, rules and regulations for the registration of political parties the respondent has registered the political party of the petitioner on October 13, 2020.
"Prime objective of the registration on time of the said political party was to contest the State Elections of Bihar, 2020. However, the last date for filing the nomination for the first phase of the election already got expired on October 8, 2020, and the petitioner has been running from post to pillar but no avail," the plea said.
The petition, which likely to be heard on October 16 by a bench of the Delhi High Court, also sought permission for a common symbol for all the candidates of the party.
It also said that the political party wanted to contest the assembly election of Bihar, 2020 but due to apathy and lackadaisical approach on the part of the respondent to register the petitioner on and before October 8, has resulted in irreparable loss to the petitioner, and the prejudice has been occasioned thereby.
"The petitioner made humble, benign and repeated request to the respondent to register the political Party till October 8 so its candidates can contest the first phase of the Bihar Assembly Election under its banner. Unfortunately, the humble and legitimate requests of the Petitioner was not accepted by the respondent," the plea said.
"The Election Commission of India in the press note dated October 8 gave relaxation and reduced notice period from 30 days to 7 days for the parties which have published the public notice on or before October 7," it added.
The plea also mentioned that the relaxation will remain to enforce till October 20, 2020, the last date for nomination for phase three of the general election to the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
"The petitioner was denied the opportunity of this relaxation announced by the respondent as a result of which its candidates were constrained to file nomination for the first phase of the election as independent candidates owing to the facts that the last date to file the nominations for the first phase of Bihar election was October 8," the plea said.