Delhi High Court allows sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran's plea for common symbol

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday allowed rebel AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran to use a common symbol, preferably a ‘pressure cooker’, and a suitable name of his choice for the AIADMK faction led by him.Justice Rekha Palli directed the Election Commission of India to do the needful within three weeks after giving Dhinakaran’s faction an appropriate hearing.

The court passed the order on an interim application filed by Dhinakaran seeking a directive that his group be allowed to carry out its political activities as a unified entity during the pendency of his main application regarding ‘two leaves’ symbol.The main petition challenges the Election Commission’s November 23 order, which had allotted the ‘two leaves’ symbol to the group headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

Earlier, Dhinakaran had submitted that he needed a temporary name and symbol for his group to interact with the electorate in the event of elections to local bodies or any other polls held before his claim to the party’s symbol was decided. The application sought the allocation of the name and symbol only till the pendency of the main petition, claiming that otherwise the poll panel might declare it as a separate party.
Dhinakaran had won the by-elections from RK Nagar in December on the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol with a margin of over 40,000 votes. The Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction has also given a list of three names – All India Amma Anna Dhravidar Munnetra Kazhagam, MGR Amma Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam and MGR Amma Dhravidar Kazhagam – seeking that one of them be temporarily allotted to them.

On December 4 last year, the High Court had declined to grant any interim relief to Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction of the AIADMK by dismissing their plea to use the ‘hat’ symbol in the bypoll to RK Nagar Assembly constituency.  The court had left the decision to the Returning Officer, who had allotted the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol to Dhinakaran for the RK Nagar bypoll on December 21 last year. The ‘hat’ symbol was given to the Sasikala-Dhinakaran group by the Election Commission of India in March 2017, after it froze the use of ‘two-leaves’ symbol to which the group led by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had also laid claim. The EPS-OPS faction had at the same time been granted ‘electric pole’ symbol. However, on November 23, 2017, poll panel ruled in favour of EPS-OPS faction by allotting ‘Two-Leaves’ symbol to it.

Will not allow use of party name: AIADMK
Chennai: The ruling AIADMK on Friday said it would not allow Dhinakaran to use the party name and legal steps would be taken to ensure this. Responding to queries, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar, said he was yet to read the full text of the verdict of Delhi High Court. “But I say the AIADMK will not allow TTV Dhinakaran to use the party AIADMK or AIADMK (Amma).”