Days after the Election Commission of India rejected the 'torchlight' symbol for his political party 'Makkal Needhi Maiam' ahead of the assembly polls, actor turned politician Kamal Haasan has torched a new move with the tenacity of obtaining his signature symbol through which his party contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and campaigning for the upcoming assembly polls. 

According to reports, Kamal Haasan's party has on Thursday submitted a representation to the Election Commission of India to reconsider its decision and allot the torchlight symbol to the party in Tamil Nadu. The reports say that Makkal Needhi Maiam's General Secretary and former IAS officer Santhosh Babu had submitted a petition to the Election Commission of India along with the party's legal wing. 

Through the petition, the party has requested the Chief Electoral body to reconsider its decision and provide the symbol to the party.  On Monday, the Election Commission had allotted symbols for the parties that are on the verge of facing elections and the commission has denied the torchlight symbol for Kamal Haasan for the assembly polls that had shocked the parties and members. The development has come when he has been carrying out the drive of registering his party symbol among the voters. 

Kamal Haasan has been allotted the torchlight symbol only for Puducherry, turning off the light for the actor in Tamil Nadu. In Tamil Nadu, the torchlight symbol has gone to MGR Makkal Katchi, pushing the actor to pick the alternative symbol to contest in the state where he aims to have a strong political breakthrough. Earlier, Kamal Haasan said, "Election Commission has denied torchlight symbol for us. If there is no torchlight, we will become a lighthouse. They are driving us to take Viswaroopam. You tell me when to take Viswaroopam, we will take it immediately".

The actor and politician on Wednesday said that he will go legally to get the symbol and days after the denial, his party has now approached the Election Commission and demanding it to reconsider its decision of denying the symbol. In a statement, the Election Commission has said that the returning officers have been directed to allot the common symbols to the candidates of un-recognized political parties, subject to fulfillment of the provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) order, 1968. 

The Election Commission would be allotting the symbols by differentiating the parties as recognized and unrecognized parties. In India, there are eight national parties and 64 state parties across the country that fall under the category of recognized parties and these parties can go with their reserved symbols while the ECI would allot free symbols for the unrecognized regional parties. The reports say that Kamal Haasan's MNM is an unrecognized party, which would have to go by the free symbol and such parties have to provide a list of three free symbols at the time of filing nomination papers, and of these three, ECI would allot one symbol to the party on a first-come-first-serve basis.