Battle for AIADMK's '2 leaves' symbol: SC to hear TTV Dinakaran's petition on March 15
TTV Dinakaran faces an uphill task. (File picture)
The Supreme Court will on March 15 hear the petition filed by TTV Dinakaran over the allocation of the coveted 'two leaves' symbol to the AIADMK. The top court denied to hear the petition on an urgent basis, as sought by Dinakaran.
TTV Dinakaran's petition to the Supreme Court challenged the Delhi High Court order of February 28, which upheld the Election Commission of India's decision to allot the 'two leaves' symbol to the AIADMK faction led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and his deputy O Panneerselvam (OPS).
The OPS-EPS faction had been locked in a heated battle with Dinakaran's Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), for the prestigious symbol, which enjoys near-universal recognition in every corner of Tamil Nadu.
The Election Commission had in November 2017 ordered that the 'two leaves' symbol be allotted to the OPS-EPS faction on the grounds that it enjoyed a clear majority in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. The move also recognised this faction as the AIADMK.
The AIADMK has seen quite a bit of drama and internal realignments since the death of its former supremo J Jayalalithaa in December 2016. In the months following her death, Panneerselvam initially broke off into a splinter group against the majority faction led by former Jayalalithaa aide VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran, which had propped up Palaniswami as CM.
Following Sasikala's conviction and incarceration in the disproportionate assets case, Palaniswami and others broke away from the Sasikala faction and joined hands with the Panneerselvam group to lay claim to the AIADMK name and symbol.
The Election Commission had frozen both name and symbol for both groups for the bye-election to Jayalalithaa's RK Nagar constituency, which saw TTV Dinakaran winning seemingly against the odds.
Dinakaran has since had an even bigger setback on October 2018, when his support group of 18 MLAs was disqualified under anti-defection laws. The bye-elections to these seats is now set to be held along with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the second phase on April 18.