Salem (TN): Sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Thursday said his faction would move the Supreme Court against the Election Commission’s ruling allotting the two-leaves symbol to the unified AIADMK led by chief minister K. Palaniswami and his deputy O. Panneerselvam.
He alleged that EC acted in a partisan manner and according to the Centre’s wish while deciding the row over two-leaves party symbol.
“The Commission did not act neutrally. We will approach the Supreme Court against its order... The ruling confirms that EC functioned in accordance with the Centre’s wish...The Centre’s hand can be seen, Centre’s intervention is there,” he alleged.
The two-leaves symbol was frozen when Mr Panneerselvam, who had the support of only about a dozen each MLAs and MPs, moved the EC seeking it (in March ahead of the RK Nagar bypoll which was cancelled subsequently), he said referring to the interim order of the commission. Stating that the EC has allotted the symbol to the EPS-OPS faction on the ground they now had the support of 111 MLAs and 42 MPs, he asked why the same rationale was not followed earlier when the then Sasikala group had the backing of 122 MLAs and 37 MPs.
Without considering this, the EC was ‘keen’ on blocking the symbol. There can be “no better example to show that the Election Commission did not act neutrally in the matter,” he charged.
Mr Palaniswami was with the Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction then.
In August, Palaniswami-Panneerselvam factions merged dumping Sasikala and her clan.
