Sir — One must concede that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has proved to be more faithful to its symbol than to its general secretary. Even die-hard communists have, at times, been otherwise. If VK Sasikala engineered a split, the Election Commission of India (ECI), in one stroke, piloted the party to desperately explore unification.
Hopefully, now, both the party and Tamil Nadu will benefit. The nation would be better served if the ECI were to keep party symbols in the freezer whenever there is a clash of opinions between different factions. And in this, none should be an exception — be it the Congress, the BJP, the Trinamool Congress or any other party.
We would have then seen not only sobering re-alignment in the leadership but also ideology within each of them. The Samajwadi Party must be ruing the day the ECI, instead of locking up the cycle for a while, decided to release it to one of them. After all, UttarPradesh deserved to benefit as much as perhaps Tamil Nadu may. The ECI must be wiser by now.