Election Symbols in Election 2009

Each and every candidate whether belonging to a political party or is contesting the elevtions as an independent requires a symbol as there is a huge number of Indian voters that are uneducated so the complexity of the task of educating the votes grows many fold. Each candidate tries to educate its loyal voters about the symbol for which they have to vote for as many Indians cannot read or write any language.

It is very interesting to understand the number of election symbols that the election commission issued for the 2009 elections. Here are some facts:

In total 102 symbols were assigned to various candidates and apart form national parties other candidates had to make do with the symbols assigned by the Indian Election Commission. The election symbols ranged from Elephant, Hand, Lotus to frying pan, electric bulb, pressure cooker, rising sun, ice cream, hat, slate and so on.

This is another complication to the democratic process followed in India as similar looking symbols places next to each other can often confuse the voters. Great care need to be taken in assigning symbols to the candidates and placing them on the electronic voting machines so as not to confuse the voters. With the elections becoming so complicated and so many candidates in the fray for each seat, ensuring free and fair election gets one more complexity. The most used symbol was elephant that was given to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 500 seats and Asom Gana Parishad in 6 seats, followed by the hand symbol of Indian National Congress. Railway engine was the most popular symbol not belonging to any major national party and it was given to all political parties across the country including Praja Rajyam Party of Chiranjeevi.

Below is the list of all election symbols used in the Indian Election 2009 are listed below:

S No.	Symbol	Used in number of constituencies
1	Elephant	506
2	Hand	440
3	Lotus	433
4	Railway Engine	409
5	Kite	282
6	Nagara	253
7	Almirah	248
8	Television	224
9	Bicycle	217
10	Candles	217
11	Cup & Saucer	216
12	Bat	214
13	Coconut	196
14	Ceiling Fan	192
15	Battery Torch	184
16	Gas Cylinder	175
17	Banana	170
18	Balloon	169
19	Road Roller	167
20	Sewing Machine	154
21	Basket	151
22	Scissors	126
23	Batsman	120
24	Ring	103
25	Bungalow	102
26	Whistle	100
27	Jug	88
28	Camera	87
29	Saw	87
30	Diesel Pump	82
31	Glass Tumbler	82
32	Hammer, Sickle and Star	82
33	Walking Stick	82
34	Flag with Three Stars	80
35	Bow & Arrow	79
36	Black Board	73
37	Clock	68
38	Maize	67
39	Table	61
40	Cot	59
41	Ears of Corn And Sickle	56
42	Arrow	55
43	Table Lamp	54
44	Comb	52
45	Electric Pole	47
46	Shuttle	45
47	Hurricane Lamp	44
48	Hat	41
49	Slate	40
50	Bread	39
51	Letter Box	38
52	Gas Stove	37
53	Kettle	37
54	Flowers and Grass	35
55	Pressure Cooker	33
56	A lady farmer carrying paddy on her head	31
57	Carrot	31
58	Harmonium	31
59	Brief Case	30
60	Coat	29
61	Dolli	27
62	Lion	25
63	Lock and Key	25
64	Brush	24
65	Two Leaves	24
66	Ice Cream	23
67	Rising Sun	22
68	Cake	20
69	Stool	20
70	Conch	18
71	Iron	16
72	Spade & Stoker	16
73	Violin	16
74	Ladder	15
75	Tent	13
76	Spoon	11
77	Frock	10
78	Lady Purse	10
79	Scales	10
80	Car	9
81	Hand Pump	8
82	Fork	7
83	Mango	7
84	Ink Pot & Pen	6
85	Chair	5
86	Spectacles	5
87	Frying Pan	4
88	Top	4
89	Cart	3
90	Plough	3
91	Book	2
92	Star	2
93	Aeroplane	1
94	Bead Necklace	1
95	Cock	1
96	Drum	1
97	Electric Bulb	1
98	Haldhar Within Wheel (Chakra Haldhar)	1
99	Hut	1
100	Not Alloted	1
101	Two Daos Intersecting	1
102	Umbrella	1

More inside this election analysis:

Home Page of Indian Election Analysis

Lowest margin of victory in Election 2009.

Votes polled across various states and power of votes.

List of 191 constituencies where winner got more than 50% of the total votes polled.

Fractured Electorate A case of Buxar in Bihar, winner got only 22% of the total votes polled!