Cycle symbol belongs to Akhilesh, rules Election Commission

The Election Commission ruled on Monday that the symbol 'cycle' belongs to UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The Election Commission of India said on Monday evening that the 'Cycle’ symbol belongs to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. The ECI on Monday held that the group led by Akhilesh is the Samajwadi Party, and is entitled to use its name and its reserved symbol the 'cycle’ for the elections.

The ECI ruled in favour of the Akhilesh faction since he had the numbers.

With this order, the Mulayam faction would have to look for a new symbol. The verdict comes as a major boost for Akhilesh who will now contest the UP assembly elections on the SP original symbol.

Both the parties had argued extensively before the ECI. The Akhilesh faction argued that they had the numbers and hence the symbol should remain with them. Mulayam's faction contended that the meeting called by the Akhilesh faction was illegal.

For both factions, the symbol was extremely important. For the SP over the past five years everything revolved round the cycle. Akhilesh has cycled in public several times to promote an eco-friendly transport. Further the state labour department has distributed lakhs of cycle in the past five years. Around 3,000 kilometres of cycle track too was constructed in the past five years.

All this is a clear indicator as to how important the cycle is to the Samajwadi Party and the faction that gets to keep it is the real winner in this family feud.

OneIndia News