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Officials from India’s Congress Party said lotus flowers in ponds across the central state of Madhya Pradesh should be hidden to avoid them being seen as election advertising for BJP, news reports said on Tuesday.
Congress officials wrote to the Election Commission on Monday to ask that all the lotuses in three parts of Madhya Pradesh be hidden from view, despite them being in full autumn bloom, the report said.
The lotus is the symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won the last elections in Madhya Pradesh. But it is also a national flower, and a sign of good luck, prosperity and fertility.
“Congress does not want the lotus crop to influence our chances adversely by making voters think about BJP,” ahead of the November 25 state elections, Congress official Amar Chand Bawaria was quoted as saying.
BJP spokesman Vishwas Sarang hit back at the request, asking whether voters should therefore be required cover their hands — a symbol of the Congress Party.
The Election Commission has in the past ordered that stone elephant statues in parts of Uttar Pradesh state be covered to avoid them being seen as illegal election advertising for the Bahujan Samaj Party, which has the animal as its symbol.
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