Two leaves back in play

CHENNAI: Ending an eight-month-long suspense, the Election Commission on Thursday recognised the faction led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam as the real AIADMK and allotted the Two Leaves symbol to it.

In effect, the EC order has put an end to the three-decade-old dominance of V K Sasikala, T T V Dhinakaran and their relatives in the affairs of AIADMK.

Just after the EC order was issued, AIADMK cadre gathered at the party headquarters cheered and burst crackers to celebrate the moment. Palaniswami and Pannerselvam said the EC had rendered justice to AIADMK cadre and that they dedicate the EC order to the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. They along with ministers and functionaries, paid their respects at the memorials of J Jayalalithaa, M G Ramachandran and C N Annadurai on the Marina.

In its 83-page order, the EC said a majority of office-bearers as well MPs and MLAs are with the ruling faction and hence the party name and symbol have been allotted to them. This is the second time the Two Leaves symbol has been retrieved after the EC froze it, the first time being in 1988 when the party split after the death of chief minister M G Ramachandran.

The Commission had frozen the symbol on March 22 during the by-election to RK Nagar Assembly constituency, based on a petition from the faction led by O Panneerselvam.

“The Commission is of the considered opinion that the group led by E Madhusudhanan, O Panneerselvam and S Semmalai and the impleading applicant Edappadi K Palaniswami, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, enjoys support of majority of members, both in the organisational and legislative wings of the AIADMK. Accordingly, the group led by them is hereby recognised, in terms of Election Symbols Order, 1968,” the EC order read.

In this connection, the Commission pointed out that the ruling faction of the AIADMK enjoyed the support of 42 MPs, 111 MLAs in Tamil Nadu and four MLAs in Puducherry while the group led by Sasikala and others have the support of just six MPs and 20 MLAs (including the 18 MLAs disqualified but pending before the court).

Extensively quoting past judgments of the Supreme Court in various cases, the EC said: “Having considered the submissions of the learned senior counsel of both groups, the Commission is of the view that the present dispute has to be decided on the touchstone of numerical superiority between the rival groups in the organisational and legislature wings of the party.”

The EC further said the Commission had consistently followed and applied similar test of majority organisational and legislature wings of the parties whenever a dispute had arisen since 1971 for determination in terms of Symbols Order. The latest were the cases of Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United).

The EC observed that it had taken into account the developments that took place in the organisational and legislature hierarchy of the party subsequent to the filing of petition dated March 16 in larger public interest, as ordered by the Supreme Court in a series of judgments on the issue.

It also recalled what happened when the Two Leaves symbol was frozen in 1988 following the death of the then general secretary of the party, M G Ramachandran. “The ultimate decision was given based on the facts and circumstances as obtaining on the date of its decision, i.e., February 11, 1989. The Commission had seen the position of the two rival groups as on January 22, 1970 as well as in the latter half of 1970, thereby taking into account the subsequent developments after the initiation of the proceedings in that matter under the Symbols Order.”