In a major setback at a high time when he has been preparing for the assembly polls, the Election Commission of India has given a shock to actor turned politician Kamal Haasan by denying the 'torchlight' symbol for his party in the Tamil Nadu assembly polls. The development has come when he has been carrying out the drive of registering his party symbol among the voters. 

The party has been bracing up the shock, which has come hours after Kamal Haasan revealed that he would be contesting in the assembly polls. On Monday, he had divulged his participation in the election and he had begun his campaign for the assembly polls from Madurai and held a roadshow in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu including Madurai and Theni during which the Election Commission had unfolded the high-level drama of denying torchlight symbol for his party. 

According to reports, 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. The Election Commission of India had on Monday assigned symbols to the political parties in the assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Puducherry. 

While the recognized decades-old parties will go for elections with their trademark and reserved symbols, other un-recognized parties would be awarded a new symbol from the Election Commission and it has allotted symbols for the parties on Monday. The ECI has allotted a 'pressure cooker' symbol for TTV Dhinakaran's Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), which is the rival faction of the Tamil Nadu ruling ADMK, for all 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu and 30 assembly constituencies in Puducherry. 

After a major setback of denying the symbol, Kamal Haasan said that torchlight will now become a lighthouse. He stated, "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". By taking to Twitter, the actor asserted equal space for women in the government mechanisms if he comes to power in the state.  

He said that there would be at least 20 female ministers in the state if his party take the reign from the Dravidian strongholds. Amid being bracing up for the setback, Kamal Haasan has been unveiling his campaign across the state, as it would be the first state election for the actor turned politician since he launched the political party. It must be worth noting that Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) had contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with the torchlight symbol and garnered a decent voter base in its first national election. However, the actor turned politician hadn't contested in the Lok Sabha polls. 

The reports say that Tamil Nationalist Seeman, the Chief of Naam Tamilar Katchi, has been allotted with Ganna Kisan (farmer) symbol for his party in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry constituencies. 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.