TTV Dhinakaran faction moves EC; seeks to freeze AIADMK two-leaves symbol permanently

TTV Dhinakaran faction of AIADMK moved the Election Commission (EC) on Monday to freeze its two-leaves symbol permanently.

#BREAKING – TTV Dinakaran faction moves EC to freeze two-leaves AIADMK symbol permanently | @SubhajitSG with more details pic.twitter.com/Jo8ZMm2jfk

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The Madras High Court bench on 4 October reserved its order on an impleading petition by AIADMK (Amma) faction leader TTV Dhinakaran, seeking an extension of its 31 October deadline on the party symbol dispute case to 28 February, 2018.

Dhinakaran in his petition had pleaded for an extension of the deadline, saying the EC had sought fresh submissions and it would only expand the scope of the dispute.

Besides, the EC should allow his group to file objections for the new submissions, he had said.

Dhinakaran had filed the impleading petition on a PIL by Ramkumar Adityan, an AIADMK member and advocate, on which the court had last month directed the EC to decide which faction enjoyed the majority in the ruling party in Tamil Nadu and allot the symbol to it before 31 October.

Adityan had filed a PIL seeking to direct the EC to conduct an election among the party’s general council and executive committee and MLAs and MPs, totalling 3,100, to decide which group had the majority.

Counsel for Chief Minister E Palaniswamy faction on Wednesday submitted that the EC had given sufficient time till 4 October for submission of documents.

He should have filed a review petition and not an interim petition and hence his petition should be dismissed, the counsel said. Justices M Venugopal and Abdul Qudhose reserved orders on the petition.

Dhinakaran had also sought a direction from the court to the EC not to enlarge the scope of the dispute and direct it to grant sufficient opportunity to the parties to effectively produce their defence, reply and rebuttal in case fresh affidavits are submitted.

Dhinakaran had claimed that 102 MLAs, 37 MPs and 1,912 general council and central executive committee members supported him.

He submitted that the latest EC direction to make fresh submission would only enhance the scope of the dispute, and it would not be able to decide the dispute involving volumes of documents before 31 October.

Hence, he had sought an extension of the deadline, set by the court in its 15 September order.

Previously, the Supreme Court granted time till 10 November to the Election Commission to decide the claims over the AIADMK’s two-leaves election symbol by the rival factions of the party, according to a PTI report.

With inputs from PTI