The Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) will take up the figurative bow and arrow once again in its fight for next year’s Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC) election.
KHNAM literally means arrow in the Khasi language but, over the last few years, the small regional party has, confusingly, been using the symbol of a machete, specifically a dao.
Speaking yesterday, KHNAM vice-president Thomas Passah said that, the party’s understanding is that as the MDC election is a state matter, and because no other registered party is using a bow and arrow as its symbol, KHNAM is able to reclaim it.
In 2002, KHNAM used the bow and arrow but six years later, a registered political party in Maharashtra opted for the same symbol and KHNAM, being a registered unrecognised party, had to drop it, according to the rules of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Passah said, “We used the dao as a symbol because, at that time, the dao was on the free list of symbols as per the ECI. Then in 2023, a registered political party from Tripura opted for the dao as a reserve symbol. Now, after careful studies of various laws, it is known that MDC election is a state subject and the rules of the ECI on the allotment of symbols does not apply to the MDC election.”
