A day after the Election Commission barred the rival AIADMK factions from using the party name and symbol in the R K Nagar bypoll, the two camps submitted new names and symbols to the poll panel to contest the election.
According to party sources, the EC accepted the request of the Sasikala camp that it be allotted "hat" as its symbol. The faction will contest as AIADMK (Amma). The O Panneerselvam camp will use the 'electric pole' as its symbol and will be called AIADMK (Puratchithalaivi Amma).
The EC had earlier allotted Sasikala's camp the autorikshaw symbol. They however, asked for the hat symbol. Earlier in the day, V. K. Sasikala's faction submitted its party name along with 3 options of symbols- Auto, Bat and Cap, to the EC.
Also, the OPS camp has named its faction AIADMK Puratchi Thalavai Amma and the Sasikala camp named AIADMK Amma.
E Madhusudhanan of the OPS camp today filed his nomination at R K Nagar. T T V Dinakaran of the Sasikala faction and Maruthu Ganesh of DMK will also be contesting the bypoll.
Meanwhile, in Chennai's RK Nagar, rebel leader E Madhusudhanan took on general secretary VK Sasikala and her faction and family. "Is Sasikala and family ready to disclose assets before 1991 (before becoming influential under Jaya's shadow)," he asked.
The election manifesto to be released tomorrow, says Madhusudhanan. It could be a first to have a manifesto for a bypoll. OPS will have a final say over name and symbol, he further added.
The Election Commission yesterday after hearing both the factions of the AIADMK party contesting for the symbol of 'Two Leaves' had decided that neither of the groups will be permitted to use the symbol in the upcoming RK Nagar bypoll. The EC also ruled that neither group could use the name AIADMK. (READ MORE)
"Both the groups will also be allotted such different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission," it said.
The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa who was elected from RK Nagar. There has been a tug of war between General Secretary VK Sasikala and the breakaway faction led by former CM O Panneerselvam.
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The issue took a new turn on March 16 when the OPS faction filed a petition seeking allotment of the two leaves symbol to E Madhusudanan, their candidate in RK Nagar, which is facing a bypoll on April 12.
After the EC verdict, both the party factions expressed shock over the freezing of the party's election symbol of 'two leaves' and said they will make all efforts to retrieve it. While AIADMK Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran said he did not expect such an outcome, the former Tamil Nadu chief minister O Panneerselvam in a statement said it was "shocking and disappointing" that his party didn't get the symbol despite submitting "strong evidence" to the EC and that they would get it back "at any cost".
(With agency inputs)