NEW DELHI/CHENNAI: The battle for supremacy in the AIADMK reached the Election Commission’s doors on Tuesday with the Dinakaran faction claiming to be the real party and filing a caveat before the Election Commission that it should be heard before the poll body takes a decision on any plea to be submitted by the faction consisting of O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswamy after their recent merger.
Not to be outdone, leaders of the merged group of factions headed by Panneerselvam and Palaniswamy met in Delhi to approach the Commission, likely on Wednesday, seeking recognition as the real AIADMK and the “Two Leaves” symbol for it.
Tamil Nadu ministers D Jayakumar, C V Shanmugham, Thangamani and former MP Manoj Pandian met at the residence of party MP V Maitreyan and discussed the strategy about moving the Commission.
The day started with Karnataka AIADMK unit chief Pugazhendi and Namakkal District Secretary Anbazhagan, a former MP, filing a petition before the Commission in the wake of media reports that the rival faction leaders would file petitions withdrawing earlier affidavits by their respective factions that led to the freezing of the “Two Leaves” symbol earlier this year.
As respondents in the case, General Secretary V K Sasikala and Deputy General Secretary T T V Dinakaran belonging to the AIADMK (Amma) faction should be heard in the case, Pugazhendi told reporters after filing the petition.
He said their faction has also updated the Commission with the latest set of office bearers in the party and also the removal of some of them.
Following the death of J Jayalalithaa, rival factions had approached the Commission seeking the “Two Leaves” symbol for contesting the RK Nagar Assembly by-election in April which was countermanded following allegations of use of money power to influence the outcome. In the by-election, the Panneerselvam faction was recognised as AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) and the Dinakaran faction was recognised as AIADMK (Amma). Dinakaran contested the election as an AIADMK (Amma) candidate.
However, in a dramatic turn of events, the two factions came together last week in a bid to isolate Sasikala and Dinakaran after declaring that their nomination to the posts of General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary was invalid.
The OPs and EPS groups are likely to approach the Commission shortly seeking withdrawal of their earlier affidavits claiming that they have merged and that unity has been registered in the party. — IANS
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