With the Supreme Court clearing the decks for the final hearing in the ‘Two leaves’ symbol case by fixing the deadline of November 10 to the poll body to decide the case, an AIADMK faction headed by Deputy Chief Minister OPS Pannerselvam pleaded with the Election Commission on Friday for immediate lifting of the freeze on the party symbol and giving it to his group, saying the entire party office bearers and elected officials were with it. After a hearing that lasted over 150 minutes, the three-member Commission headed by AK Joti adjourned the hearing to October 13, when the TTV Dinakaran faction will submit its arguments.
Appearing before the Commission, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and CS Vaidyanathan argued that 95 per cent of the party, including 116 of the 133 MlAs, 42 of the 50 MPs and over 2,000 general council members, were with the ruling AIADMK and they were the rightful claimants for the name and symbol. Rohatgi later told reporters that they told the Commission that Dinakaran had the support of just 18 MlAs who have been disqualified and they wanted the hearing to be deferred because they want the freeze on the Two leaves symbol to continue. Counsel for Dinakaran’s faction Vijay Ansaria urged the Commission to first take up their plea for cross examination of those who had given affidavits supporting their claim and later went back to give documents in favour of the ruling faction.
In the SC, disposing of the petition of TTV Dinakaran, the Bench said that the EC being a high constitutional body is well equipped under the law to decide as to who is entitled to retain the symbol in case of dispute.