Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi: The Election Commission will hear the case on ownership of the AIADMK’s ‘two leaves’ symbol on the 5th of next month. The competing parties for the symbol have been asked to file any additional affidavits in support of their claim by the 29th of this month.
The Commission has issued the notices to the claimants Ms VK Sasikala and Mr O Panneerselvam, who were the leaders of the two AIADMK factions and Mr TTV Dhinakaran and Mr E Madhusudanan, the RK Nagar by-poll contestants. The EC action comes in the wake of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court asking it to decide on the symbol by October end.
The symbol and the party name were impounded by the Commission in March last following fissures within the party. Competing claims were made, mainly by the VK Sasikala team and the O. Panneerselvam faction of the AIADMK, leading to freezing the symbol. The Sasikala team was given ‘hat’ as the symbol and AIADMK-Amma as the party name ahead of the RK Nagar by-election.
The Panneerselvam camp got ‘electricity pole’ as the symbol and ‘AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma’ as the party name. However, Sasikala camp within the AIADMK saw another split with the merger of the team led by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy and the Panneerselvam camp, against her wishes. The October 5 hearing by the ECI is to take place under the changed circumstances.
