The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to allot the pressure cooker symbol for now to former All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dhinakaran’s party, ANI reported. Dhinakaran leads the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam.
The court, however, said the Election Commission may allot the symbol to the party if elections to vacant seats in Tamil Nadu are announced in the next four weeks and the Delhi High Court does not dispose of the case by then. The High Court had asked the poll panel to allot the symbol on March 9, 2018, when Dhinakaran’s faction had not yet been named.
A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Ajay Rastogi vacated an earlier directive temporarily suspending the high court’s order that was issued after the AIADMK faction led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami petitioned it.
The High Court had passed the directive on an application by Dhinakaran in his main petition challenging an Election Commission order of November 23, 2017, which had allotted the AIADMK’s “two leaves” symbol to the group headed by Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.
Dhinakaran had then asked for the pressure cooker symbol since he had used it for the December 2017 Assembly bye-election in Chennai’s RK Nagar, which was former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s seat, and won it by more than 40,000 votes. On February 16, 2018, the Election Commission told the Delhi High Court that it was opposed to Dhinakaran’s plea because only a recognised political party can be allotted a symbol or name.
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