'If EC guided by private party, then what remains?' Calcutta HC

KOLKATA: Calcutta high court on Monday pulled up Election Commission for its “conduct” during the hearing of a dispute over an election symbol, suggesting a “connivance” between the poll body and Democratic Trinamool Congress, which was allotted the ‘envelope’ symbol that was previously with Indian Secular Front (ISF).“Conduct of the parties reveals connivance between them. If the ECI has been guided by the private party, then what remains? You cannot take assistance from a private party,” justice Krishna Rao told the EC counsel, prompting the latter to clarify that he was “not being guided” by Democratic Trinamool’s counsel.The court was hearing an appeal by ISF against EC’s decision to allot ‘envelope’, the symbol with which it contested Lok Sabha polls and the 2026 assembly polls, to Democratic Trinamool for the upcoming bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar.Pursuant to the bench’s question whether the Commission could legally allot the symbol to Democratic…