ECI summons EPS, OPS over AIADMK poll symbol
This comes after the Madras high court on December 4 had directed the ECI to take a decision in four weeks on the affairs of the AIADMK on a petition that sought for the party’s iconic two-leaves symbol not to be allowed to candidate fielded by EPS until the leadership is settled.
Chennai: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has called AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) and expelled party leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) to appear for a personal hearing on December 23 in Delhi in a hearing related to AIADMK’s two leaves symbol.
This comes after the Madras high court on December 4 had directed the ECI to take a decision in four weeks on the affairs of the AIADMK on a petition that sought for the party’s iconic two-leaves symbol not to be allowed to candidate fielded by EPS until the leadership is settled.
The ECI addressed this letter, a copy of which is with HT, to the petitioner’s (S Surya Moorthi) counsel B Ramkumar Aditya. “…the Commission has directed all the parties to the writ petition to submit their written response (if any) before 19.12.2024, and to appear for personal hearing in the Commission on 23.12.2024 at 3 pm,” read the order signed by ECI secretary Ashwani Kumar Mohal.
A division bench of justices R Subramanian and C Kumarappan had on December 4 asked the ECI to hear all parties concerned before arriving at a decision after OPS’s counsel had said that he too should be consulted. The ECI had in April 2023 recognised EPS as the AIADMK’s general secretary and allotted the two-leaves symbol to candidates fielded by him in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Yes, EPS has been summoned. It is one more procedure for us to cement that he is our party leader,” said a senior AIADMK leader not wishing to be named.
EPS is Tamil Nadu’s leader of opposition and has been running the AIADMK after expelling OPS in 2022. Until then EPS and OPS had led the party together as coordinator and joint-coordinator respectively. EPS has the support of 63 out of the 66 MLAs who won contesting under AIADMK in the 2021 assembly elections, supporters of the latter have filed several petitions in the high court and Supreme Court challenging his expulsion. “EPS’ autocratic behaviour should be stopped. He unfairly expelled us. We now have an opportunity to speak for our side,” said a supporter of OPS who was also expelled from the party seeking anonimity. In this year’s parliamentary elections, OPS contested unsuccessfully as an independent candidate supporting the NDA in the Ramanathapuram seat.
The petitioner, S Surya Moorti, had detailed the leadership tussle that had been on-going in the AIADMK since the death of its supremo J Jayalalithaa in office in December 2016 following which V K Sasikala became the head of the party. She had passed on the post to EPS in 2017 who later jointly shared power with OPS. Over the years EPS first expelled Sasikala, her nephew TTV Dhinakaran and in 2022 he shunted out OPS. All three have tried to claim rights over the AIADMK unsuccessfully. The petitioner had submitted the request to the ECI in February. Following this, the ECI told the high court that they had issued a notice to the AIADMK. The party which is Tamil Nadu’s main opposition has responded to the notice.
