CHENNAI: The Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam's (AMMK) quest for a common symbol to contest the Lok Sabha elections and the by-elections to the 18 Assembly constituencies has come to an end with the Election Commission allotting Gift Pack symbol to the candidates of AMMK. Though the order was issued on Thursday, the AMMK revealed it today morning.
Since the last date of withdrawal of nomination is today, the Returning Officers used to allot symbols too to the candidates in the fray. As such, the AMMK candidates will not face any difficulty in getting a symbol.
The symbol was chosen by TTV Dhinakaran, deputy general secretary of AMMK and was intimated to the EC on Thursday and the Commission, on the same day, allotted it to Dhinakaran’s party.
The Supreme Court, in its order dated March 26, urged the EC "to make all endeavour to allot one particular symbol" to the candidates to be fielded by Dhinakaran. The EC order in this regard sent to the Chief Electoral Officers of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry said the allotment of Gift Pack symbol to the AMMK should be intimated to the Returning Officers of all constituencies immediately.
P Vetrivel, senior leader of the AMMK and candidate for Perambur Assembly constituency where by-election is scheduled for April 18, told Express :"Since the ruling AIADMK was opposing the allocation of Pressure Cooker symbol the AMMK, the people were eagerly awaiting to know what would be the symbol of AMMK and now, they got to know it. In this cyber era, propagating the new symbol won't be a problem for them and indeed, it has already reached the people through television channels."
For Dhinakaran, getting a different symbol is not happening for the first time. When he contested the by-election to RK Nagar Assembly constituency for the first time in March 2017, he was the official candidate of the AIADMK. Since the EC had freezed the Two Leaves due to a petition from O Panneerselvam and others, Dhinakaran got hat symbol.
Since the by-election was rescinded by the EC at the eleventh hour on April 10, 2017. Later, Dhinakaran faced opposition from the top leaders of the AIADMK and they announced that the family of TTV Dhinakaran would be ‘kept away’ from the party and government affairs.
After many developments, the EC announced that the by-election to RK Nagar would happen on December, 2017 in which Dhinakaran could not get Hat symbol again but got Pressure Cooker symbol and won the election by a sizeable margin. Later, Dhinakaran launched his own political party AMMK stating that it would only be a stop-gap arrangement until redeeming the AIADMK and filed cases before the Delhi High Court seeking to allot Two Leaves symbol to them.
Recently, the Delhi High Court gave the verdict recognising the party headed by E Madhusudanan, O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami as the AIADMK and that the Two Leaves symbol would go to them. After this, Dhinakaran challenged this order before the SC and sought directions to EC to allot Pressure Cooker symbol as a common symbol to the candidates of his party.
Finally, SC, on March 16, rejected Dhinakaran’s plea and urged the Commission “To make all endeavour to allot a particular symbol’ to the candidates put up Dhinakaran. Now, the EC has allocated Gift Pack symbol to the candidates of Dhinakaran.