CHENNAI: The Two Leaves symbol of the AIADMK has come under the spotlight once again on Monday after the Supreme Court directed the Election Commission of India to respond to the plea of Edappadi K Palaniswami to recognise his appointment as the interim general secretary, and abolition of the coordinator post as decided in the July 11 general council meeting of the party.
Since the ECI recognising EPS as interim general secretary of the party is important for getting the Two Leaves symbol in the by-election to Erode East Assembly constituency, the symbol issue has assumed centre stage again.
The DMK-led alliance is already going on with the campaign. But the two factions of the principal opposition AIADMK are struggling to announce their candidates due to intra-party bickerings, as both the factions are trying their best to get the Two Leaves symbol for the by-election. At this juncture, now the SC has kicked the ball into the ECI’s court. The last date for filing nomination papers for the by-election ends on February 7. Due to intra-party disputes, the Two Leaves symbol was frozen twice in 1988 and 2017.
AIADMK advocates wing functionary and former MLA IS Inbadurai, a staunch supporter of Palaniswami said there are multiple reasons why the Two Leaves symbol will come to EPS. “Firstly, the Madras HC division bench order recognising EPS as interim general secretary; secondly, the ECI has already uploaded the audit reports submitted by EPS; thirdly, so far, OPS has not obtained a stay from any court on his expulsion from the AIADMK.”
Inbadurai also explained there is no vertical split in the AIADMK, and more than 2,600 general council members, 63 out of the 66 MLAs, and the majority of the MPs and other office bearers are in support of EPS, and GC members have submitted affidavits before the ECI. So, the ECI can’t freeze the symbol but give it to the AIADMK led by EPS.”
When questioned whether the ECI could complete the process of getting the views of both factions ahead of the last date for filing nominations, Inbadurai said, “Definitely the commission can. The SC will give its order on February 3, and the last date for filing nominations is February 7. Already, all facts have been submitted before the ECI.”
Commenting on Monday’s developments in the SC, political analyst Tharasu Shyam said, “The ECI will take time to decide on such disputes within a party since the commission has to hear both factions. There is another possibility also. The ECI may give a ruling that let there be two factions in the AIADMK until the dispute is resolved. In that case, the OPS faction will get recognition as a faction, which could be an advantage for OPS. But it depends on how the ECI is going to approach this issue.”
Marudhu Azhaguraj, spokesperson of the OPS faction told TNIE: “We are hopeful of getting the symbol for this by-election since OPS continues to be the coordinator of the party till now as per the ECI records. For some reason, if we can’t get the symbol, OPS will field his candidate definitely.” On the ECI’s normal procedure for allocating a symbol when there is a dispute within a party, former Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishnamurthy told TNIE: “The ECI will hear both parties before taking a decision on allocation of the symbol. If the commission wants some clarifications and more evidence from both factions, the process may take time and naturally, both factions will not get the existing symbol.”