Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Jayant Patil on Wednesday claimed that the similarity between the name of the party’s election symbol with that of an independent candidate led to its defeat in Maharashtra’s Satara Lok Sabha constituency, PTI reported.

Patil said that while the symbol for his party’s candidate was a man blowing a tutari, or a traditional trumpet, the one for an independent candidate was a tutari.

Speaking to reporters, Patil said that the similarity in the symbols created confusion among voters.

The BJP’s Udayanraje Bhonsle defeated Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidate Shashikant Jayvantrao Shinde by a margin of 32,771 votes in the Satara seat.

Independent candidate Gade Sanjay Kondiba stood third in the constituency and got 37,062 votes. He had been allotted a tutari as his poll symbol, which is similar to the symbol of Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, PTI reported.

A tutari, also known as turha, is a trumpet that is sounded to mark the entry of important individuals or at the beginning of significant events.

On Wednesday, Patil alleged that symbols with similar names were allotted to independent candidates in a deliberate attempt to divide the votes. He also said that the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the party would raise the matter with the Election Commission.

In February, the poll panel allotted the symbol of a “man blowing turha” to the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).

This came after the Election Commission recognised Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s faction as the real Nationalist Congress Party and allocated it the “clock” symbol.

The name of the symbol allotted to Kondiba was listed as “tutari” in the Marathi list of candidates contesting from the constituency, according to PTI. It was written as “trumpet” in the English list.

Shinde’s symbol name went as “tutari wajavnara manoos” in the Marathi list and the “man blowing turha” in the English list.

Patil said: “Our symbol was ‘man blowing tutari’ but at the same time, the trumpet symbol was also given to independent candidates and it was called ‘tutari’ in the list.”

A considerable number of votes went to candidates having the trumpet as their poll symbol in the constituencies where the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) contested, said the chief of the Maharashtra unit of the party.

“In Dindori, the candidate having the trumpet symbol received more than 1 lakh votes,” said Patil. “In Satara, our candidate got defeated by 32,000 votes and at the same time, the candidate with the trumpet symbol polled more than 37,000 votes.”

He said that around 48,000 votes went to the candidate with the trumpet symbol in the Madha Lok Sabha seat and 54,000 votes to the candidate in Beed with it.

“We had taken objection before the elections and raised the issue with the ECI [Election Commission], but it paid no heed,” Patil said. “It seems this symbol was allotted deliberately for the division of votes.”

Ahead of the polls, the Sharad Pawar faction filed a complaint with the Election Commission against the allotment of the symbol of a trumpet-like instrument with the name “tutari” to an independent candidate contesting in Baramati, PTI reported.

Polling across 542 parliamentary constituencies was held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1.

Results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, declared on Tuesday, showed that the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) won eight of the 10 constituencies it had contested in Maharashtra. The party’s INDIA bloc ally, the Congress, secured 13 seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party won only nine of the 28 seats it contested.

In July last year, Ajit Pawar, along with several party MLAs, joined Maharashtra’s coalition government comprising the BJP and the Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. After joining the coalition, Ajit Pawar also became the deputy chief minister of the state.

The move had led to a split in the Nationalist Congress Party, with one faction supporting Sharad Pawar and the other backing Ajit Pawar.

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