Decide on AIADMK symbol row by November 10, Supreme Court tells poll panel

Supreme Court (Files)

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Election Commission to decide by November 10 on the AIADMK factions’ claims over the poll symbol, and allowed it to go ahead with the scheduled hearing in the case. The direction came from a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra while hearing a plea by T T V Dinakaran, leader of an AIADMK faction, challenging two separate orders passed by the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court.

The high court in its first order on September 15 had asked the EC to decide on the poll symbol row by October 31. The second order of October 5 rejected Dinakaran’s plea for more time for disposal of the case by the poll panel. The apex court refused to stay the high court order but extended the time till November 10. It pointed out that the poll panel was well equipped under the law to decide who is entitled to retain the symbol in case of dispute.

The united O Panneerselvam and E K Palaniswami factions of the AIADMK, which is locked in a battle with Dinakaran over control of the party and its two-leaves election symbol, told the EC on Friday that around 95 per cent of the party was with them and urged the poll panel to recognise them as the real AIADMK.

The counsel of OPS and EPS told the EC that according to the Supreme Court’s 1971 verdict in the Sadiq Ali case, the poll panel can decide disputes among rival groups or sections of a recognised political party staking claim to its name and symbol.

“We put forward our views very effectively and forcefully that as far as the legislative and organisational wings and general council members are concerned, a vast majority, more than 95 per cent are with us. So as per the Sadiq Ali verdict and subsequent verdicts given by the Election Commission, the EC should give the stamp of approval to us as the real AIADMK and defreeze the symbol and give it to us, to whom it rightfully belongs,” senior AIADMK leader V Maitreyan told The Indian Express.

The EPS-OPS camp told the EC at the hearing, which lasted two hours, that Sasikala and her nephew Dinakaran, who was appointed deputy general secretary of the AIADMK by her, have been removed from the party and cannot stake claim over it or the election symbol. “All members of the AIADMK have buried the hatchet and only Dinakaran, who claims to have only 18 disqualified MLAs, is on the other side,” Rohatgi told reporters after the hearing.

The EC heard both the OPS and EPS factions and adjourned the hearing to October 13. It will hear the Dinakaran faction on that date.