AIADMK row: Madras HC orders Election Commission to dispose party squabbles by 31 October

Chennai: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Friday ordered the Election Commission to dispose of the issues relating to the ruling AIADMK before 31 October, a former parliamentarian of the party said. [caption id=“attachment_3955289” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A file image of Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswamy in Chennai. PTI[/caption] “Hearing a petition, the court ordered the Election Commission to decide on all the issues relating to AIADMK before 31 October, 2017. I had impleaded as a party to a petition filed by another person,” KC Palanisamy, former AIADMK parliamentarian, told IANS. Following the death of AIADMK general secretary and chief minister J Jayalalithaa, the party split into three factions. The Election Commission has frozen the party’s ’two leaves’ symbol due to competing claims for it. Recently two factions, led by Chief Minister K Palaniswamy and former chief minister O Panneerselvam, merged. The merged faction then ousted the leaders of the third faction - general secretary VK Sasikala and deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran. The merged faction has made a fresh petition to the Election Commission in the wake of the recent developments while Dhinakaran is also claiming the ’two leaves’ symbol for his faction.