March 26, 2019;

On Tuesday, Supreme Court has directed the Election Commission of India to consider allotting a common symbol for the 59 candidates of unregistered political party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, run by VK Sasikala's nephew TTV Dhinakaran, for the forthcoming Parliamentary elections and state by-polls.

The direction comes as a relief for Dhinakaran, who has allotted just one seat for partner SDPI and contesting all other seats alone.

"The Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India has recommended allotting all the 59 candidates [Parliamentary and bypolls] a common symbol and determine them as Independent Parties, in view of free and fair elections and a 'level-playing field' for the contestants," N Raja Senthoor Pandian, counsellor for Dhinakaran, told reporters.

With the nominations for the Lok Sabha elections set to be sealed off on Tuesday afternoon, the direction for allotment of a common symbol for Dhinakaran appeared as a relief at the eleventh hour. “We will immediately send the court order to the Election Commission to enable us to get the symbol,” Senthoor Pandian told reporters.

Ever since his emergence in the field of active politics following the imprisonment of his aunt Sasikala, Dhinakaran had battled litigations on electoral symbols. The Delhi High Court was instructed to complete the case against alloting the Two Leaves symbol to the AIADMK within four weeks, or direct the Election Commission to allot the Pressure Cooker symbol to Dhinakaran.

With the Delhi High Court ruling in favour of the AIADMK led by the Edappadi K Palaniswami-O Panneerselvam combine, Dhinakaran had sought allotment of the Pressure Cooker symbol, which the Election Commission denied in the Supreme Court saying a common symbol cannot be allotted to an unregistered group.

Dhinakaran had won the RK Nagar by-elections with a large margin contesting on the Cooker symbol, which was, in fact, a replacement for an earlier allotment-- The Hat symbol.

Dhinakaran will take on both that Dravidian parties, which have stitched up alliances with the national parties to form wide, multi-party fronts. The DMK is calling its front the Secular Progressive Alliance, and the AIADMK calling its bandwagon the "mega alliance."

Besides the AMMK, it is Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam and Tamil nationalist outfit Naam Thamizhar Katchi that are striking out on their own without alliances.

Source Link

Picture Source :