The State Election Commission in Kerala has taken a significant step towards the 2025 local body elections by issuing a draft notification that allocates specific electoral symbols to political parties across the state. State Election Commissioner A. Shajahan announced on Saturday that all registered political parties would have a 15-day period to review the proposed symbols and file any objections they might have.
For the recognized national parties listed in Table 1 of the notification, the designated symbols are as follows: the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will use the ‘Broom’, the Bahujan Samaj Party will have the ‘Elephant’, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the ‘Lotus’, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) the ‘Hammer, Sickle and Star’, the Indian National Congress the ‘Hand’, and the National People’s Party will be identified by the ‘Book’.
Similarly, for the State parties, detailed in Table 2 of the notification, their symbols include: the Communist Party of India with ‘Ears of Corn and Sickle’, the Janata Dal (Secular) represented by a ‘Woman farmer carrying paddy on her head’, the Indian Union Muslim League with a ‘Ladder’, the Kerala Congress (M) with ‘Two leaves’, the Kerala Congress with an ‘Auto-rickshaw’, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party with the ‘Spade and Stoker’.
The notification further includes Table 3, which lists symbols assigned to State parties from other Indian states and Union Territories, as well as registered unrecognised political parties that hold representation in either the Kerala Legislative Assembly or any of the local self-government institutions within Kerala. Additionally, a comprehensive list of free symbols available for independent candidates or newly registered parties is also part of this important document.
Interested parties and the general public can access the complete draft notification on the State Election Commission’s official website.