CHENNAI: The battle for “two leaves” symbol will reach its crescendo on Friday when the full bench of the Election Commission will conduct a crucial hearing on demands from the factions headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and rebel leader TTV Dhinakaran that the symbol be allotted to them.
Chief Election Commissioner Achal Kumar Jyoti and Election Commissioners Om Prakash Rawat and Sunil Arora will begin the hearing at 3 pm at the Nirvachan Sadan, the headquarter of the Election Commission, during which representatives from both the factions will present their case.
The original case was filed by Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and E. Madhusudhanan after they rebelled against the then interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala staking claim for the two leaves symbol. As the EPS and OPS factions merged, Dhinakaran knocked at the doors of the Election Commission asking it not to pass any orders without hearing their side.
With the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court asking it to dispose of the petition by October 31, EC has scheduled the hearing on the matter on Friday. Sources said if EC is satisfied with the arguments and if the rival sides don't ask time for counter arguments, verdict might be passed the same evening.
“It all depends on how the hearing goes. But EC is determined to dispose of the case by October 31,” the source said.
Both the factions have already submitted their written responses making their stands clear to the EC and will push their case further at the hearing on Friday.
Both the factions have staked claim to the “Two Leaves symbol, which holds sway over people from different generations since it is associated with the charisma of late M.G. Ramachandran.
This is the second time in 29 years that rival claims over Two Leaves symbol have reached EC. In the aftermath of MGR's death in 1987, the AIADMK split into two factions — J Jayalalithaa and V N Janaki — and since both the groups staked claim over the symbol, the Election Commission kept it under freeze and allotted new symbol for both factions. Later, the symbol was de-frozen after the groups united.
