Though ideologically opposed to each other both the BJP and the Indian National Congress have their symbols rooted in Hindu religious iconography. Lotus has a great sacred and esoteric significance in Hindu religion, mythology and iconography. A lotus arises out of the navel of Lord Vishnu (the Creator) according to the Hindu pantheon, as he sleeps on the Sheshsaiya or coils of the serpent Sheshnaag with its seven hoods.
On this lotus sits Brahma, who creates the universe. The goddess Lakshmi is also known to sit on a red Lotus, and Sarasvati, on a white lotus. In Hinduism, the lotus found in muddy ponds remains unpolluted and untouched by the mud representing spiritual enlightenment, beauty, fertility, purity, prosperity, and eternity.
Humans are admonished live in the world like the lotus, untouched by their impure surroundings. Of the flowers in Hinduism clearly the most revered is the Lotus. No wonder the Committee which was set up to decide the symbol of the Bhartiya Janata Party when it was created out of the erstwhile Jan Sangh in 1980, which had a lamp as it symbol, it decided to make the new party’s symbol as lotus, one of the most popular and known Hindu symbol.
The Hindu majoritarian leanings of BJP were not hidden. The issue of the lotus being allotted to BJP as its election symbol has also been challenged in court on the plea that it was a national symbol and had religious significance. However, courts have dismissed all such pleas.
Election symbols are useful .