Chandigarh: The State Election Commission has appointed four general observers and four expenditure observers to monitor the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections, dividing the city’s 35 wards into four groups for supervision. The commission has also notified the rules governing reservation and allotment of election symbols to candidates contesting the polls.IAS officers Swapnil M Naik, D Karthikeyan, Mohamed Mansoor L and Pardeep Kumar have been assigned as general observers for wards 1–8, 9–16, 17–24 and 25–35, respectively. Anup Kumar Soni, IFS, and Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, IAS, have been kept in reserve.For expenditure monitoring, Suresh Kumar, Surinder Pal Singh, Rajan Dev Sharma and Pardeep Chopra have been assigned the same four ward clusters, respectively. Rajesh Gupta and Seema Sharma have been kept in reserve.In a separate order published in the Chandigarh Administration Gazette on Nov 12, the SEC listed the election symbols reserved for six national parties. The Aam Aadmi Party has been allotted the broom, the Bahujan Samaj Party the elephant, the BJP the lotus, the CPM the hammer, sickle and star, the Congress the hand and the National People’s Party the book.The order also provides for candidates of state parties recognised in states other than Chandigarh to seek their respective reserved symbols, subject to prescribed conditions. Such parties must apply to the SEC within three days of publication of the election notification. Their candidates will need 10 proposers, compared with one proposer for candidates of national parties.Candidates of registered but unrecognised political parties will be treated on a par with Independents for symbol allotment and will not get preference over them.Independent candidates can indicate three preferred symbols from a list of 184 free symbols. The returning officer will allot symbols as far as practicable. If more than one candidate seeks the same symbol, the allotment will be decided through a draw of lots.
