EC assigns helicopter symbol to Chirag Paswan, sewing machine to Pashupati Paras for Bihar bypolls

By Team Newsable | First Published Oct 5, 2021, 3:22 PM IST

The EC’s decision comes three days after it froze the ‘bungalow’ symbol for the LJP, allowing neither Paswan nor Paras to use it in the upcoming bypolls.

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday assigned new symbols for the warring Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) factions, one, led by Chirag Paswan and the other, by Pashupati Kumar Paras for the bye-polls in Bihar.

While the Paswan-led faction will be recognised as Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) with a ‘helicopter’ symbol, the Paras faction of the party will be termed as the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party with a ‘sewing machine’ symbol.

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"Having considered the request, the Commission has allotted the name Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) for your group and has allotted the helicopter as the symbol to be allotted to the candidate set up, if any, by your group in the current by-election," read a directive issued by the EC to Chirag Paswan.

In another order issued to Pashupati Kumar Paras, the EC said, "Having considered your request, the Commission has allotted the name Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party for your group and has allotted the symbol 'Sewing Machine' to be allotted to the candidate set up, if any, by your group in the current by-election."

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Paswan and Paras have been at loggerheads since June over the party’s leadership. The EC’s decision comes three days after it froze the ‘bungalow’ symbol for the LJP, allowing neither Paswan nor Paras to use it in the upcoming bypolls.

Paswan and Paras were instructed by the Election Commission to choose interim names and symbols for the bye-polls by 1 pm on Monday. It also directed both the factions to submit documents supporting their claim to represent the party by November 5.

Both Paswan and his uncle had staked a claim over the LJP and passed orders ‘expelling’ each other, earlier this year. The LJP split in June after five of the six MPs — Paras (Hajipur), Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser (Khagaria), Veena Devi (Vaishali), Prince Raj (Samastipur) and Chandan Singh (Nawada) — overthrew Chirag as their leader and replaced him with Paras.

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