CHENNAI: The ruling AIADMK has convened its district secretaries meeting for March 17 to discuss the works to be done for the Lok Sabha elections just a month away. The list of constituencies to be contested by each of the alliance parties is likely to be released on that day as the identification of constituencies is almost over except for a few. On the same day, the aspirants for contesting the by-elections to the 18 Assembly constituencies will be interviewed by the parliamentary board members of the party.
Meanwhile, party sources said the top brass of the AIADMK are finding it difficult to allocate constituencies for key functionaries of the leaders since the list is a little long and the number of constituencies available is only 20. Since the DMK has already released the list of constituencies and is scheduled to release the list of party candidates on March 17, the ruling party is also trying its best to release the list of constituencies as well as the candidates list on the same day. On Friday, AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami were scheduled to attend a meeting at the party headquarters but it was cancelled.
‘Two Leaves’ case
Meanwhile, in another development, the Supreme Court refused to stay the Delhi High Court order confirming the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol for the AIADMK led by E Madhusudhanan, Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, when the petition filed by AMMK deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran came up for hearing before the bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
Counsel for Dhinakaran urged the SC to allocate the Cooker symbol to the party headed by Dhinakaran in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. In this connection, the bench directed the Election Commission to respond by March 25.
Deepa Peravai to go it alone
MGR Amma Deepa Peravai led by J Deepa announced that her outfit would contest all 40 constituencies on its own.
Responding to a question, she said talks had been on with the AIADMK and since no agreement was reached, her party could not join the ‘mega alliance’.