EC: Ramgopal's plea had signatures of 31 natl executive members, 5242 party delegates, 195 MLAs & 48 MLCs of UP, 4 Lok Sabha MPs & 11 RS MPs



— Bharti Jain (@bhartijainTOI) January 16, 2017

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission granted the disputed 'cycle' symbol of the Samajwadi Party to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav today.The EC's decision comes as a huge blow to Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav ahead of the impending state assembly polls The three-member EC, headed by Nasim Zaidi, had reserved its judgement after hearing both sides on January 13. Today, it ruled in favour of Akhilesh after examining documents signed by party members advocating support to the young party leader.Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, counsel to Akhilesh's faction, attested to the same."EC dealt with the issue at various angles. By January 9, the Akhilesh group filed all documents at various levels. But the Mulayam group did not respond to the commission's direction and that meant they really had no evidence of their support claim," Sibal said after the verdict.The EC said the group led by Akhilesh Yadav is the Samajwadi Party and is entitled to use the 'bicycle' symbol. It also acknowledged Akhilesh Yadav as the national president of the Samajwadi Party.Hailing the EC's decision, senior leader and Akhilesh loyalist Ram Gopal Yadav said, "This is a just decision. The Election Commission will get the blessings of crores of people in Uttar Pradesh."The dispute over the party symbol arose following election of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav as the SP national president at a convention on January 1.At the same convention, incumbent president Mulayam Singh Yadav was made the patron of the party.This was contested by Mulayam, who approached the EC and conveyed to it that he continues to be the party president and the election symbol should remain with his faction.This was challenged by the other side, which filed affidavits by various party office bearers, MPs, MLAs and district presidents to claim that the majority was with the chief minister's faction, hence it was entitled to the symbol.As a contingency, both factions had zeroed in on alternate symbols in case the 'cycle' was frozen. The Mulayam faction is believed to be considering Lok Dal's symbol of 'farmer with a plough'.The assembly poll process for Uttar Pradesh will commence tomorrow with notification for the first phase of voting on February 11 covering 73 constituencies spread over 15 distracts in Muslim-dominated Western UP. The state will have seven-phase polling between February 11 and March 8.