[calvinbhai]

Many people don't realize this, but its an innovation by the Election Commission in India to have symbols for each political candidate competing in a constituency.

This ensured that a Political Party / Candidate name wouldn't face the localization hurdles in a constituency which has people speaking/knowing 3 to 4 different scripts and languages. Even during the election campaigning, politicians ask people to vote for a symbol, because it breaks the language/script barriers.

The hurdle often is not obvious for many people, because when they think "different languages", they assume its the same script.