Chennai: Intensifying its battle for acquiring “two leaves” symbol, the O. Panneerselvam camp on Monday submitted 6,000 affidavits consisting of more than 40 lakh signatures from “party cadres” supporting him before the Election Commission ahead of the crucial hearing on the issue on Wednesday.
After having declared that they represent “real AIADMK”, the OPS camp petitioned the EC on Friday last demanding that the “two leaves” symbol of the party be allotted to their candidate E. Madhusudhanan forcing the poll body to issue notices to the faction led by V. K. Sasikala to give their comments.
The EC has also scheduled a full-bench hearing on the issue on Wednesday during which representatives of both factions of the AIADMK would present their views after which a verdict is expected the same night.
Ahead of the hearing, the OPS camp submitted 6,000 affidavits consisting of signatures from nearly “40 lakh cadre”, including party functionaries, supporting Mr Panneerselvam as their leader and advocating allotment of “two leaves” symbol to his faction.
“We have so far submitted 40 lakh signatures. The affidavits contain names of the cadre who have affixed their signature and their village/town and we plan to submit another 20 lakh signatures of cadre on Tuesday. We want to show the EC that cadres are with us,” a senior leader of the OPS camp said.
The former chief minister, who rebelled against Ms Sasikala on February 7, has been claiming he and leaders owing allegiance to him represent the real AIADMK since late Jayalalithaa appointed them to their respective posts. His faction has also been demanding that the appointment of Ms Sasikala as general secretary of AIADMK be declared “null and void” since only cadres can elect the leader.
This is the second time in nearly 29 years the battle over the “two leaves” symbol, which holds sway over people from different generation since it is associated with the charisma of late M. G. Ramachandran, has reached the Election Commission.
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 defreezed after the party was united.
The decision on Wednesday night is crucial since nomination for the April 12 by-election to Dr R K Nagar ends on March 23.
