Ranchi, March 24: What’s in a symbol? “A lot,” if you ask 79-year-old N.E. Horo, president of Jharkhand Party.

The Jharkhand Party’s symbol was the cock. According to Horo, it meant a lot not only to him and his party members, but also to voters in the remote areas of Khunti parliamentary constituency and other Assembly segments.”

The symbol struck an emotional chord with tribal voters since the cock is an integral part of their life. “People in villages easily identified with the symbol and related it to the Jharkhand Party, which pioneered the struggle for a separate Jharkhand state,” says a party worker.

Supporters believe that Horo’s and the party’s electoral performances suffered after the lock and key replaced the symbol of the cock in 1980. Now, the party has requested the Election Commission to grant permission to make the nagara its symbol. Horo, known for his temper and obstinacy, was elected to the Assembly in 1967, 1969, and 1977. In 1968, he was the minister for planning and public relations in undivided Bihar. He was elected to the Lok Sabha too, his last term being 1980 to 1984. In 1975, he was nominated a candidate for the post of vice-president of India.

“In 1966, we adopted the cock symbol. However, the poll panel rejected it on the ground that it was a tribal religious symbol. It was given back in 1980 but was taken away again after about 10 days, by when candidates in Lohardagga and Gumla had started campaigning. We were allotted the lock and key symbol,” he says, adding: “That was a mistake.”

“The Election Commission was unjust. This time we have to include the nagara on its list of free symbols,” he says.

The Jharkhand Party has decided to contest seven or eight Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand and three Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats in Orissa. The Khunti seat will pit Horo against outgoing BJP MP Karia Munda.”

It was Horo who kept the Jharkhand Party and the demand for a separate state afloat after Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh joined the Congress in 1963. Horo still hasn’t given up his dream of a “greater Jharkhand, which would include districts from West Bengal, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh.

“What we have today is a langara (lame) Jharkhand,” says Horo.