AIADMK says will not allow Dhinakaran to use party name

Team Udayavani, Mar 9, 2018, 2:53 PM IST

Chennai: The ruling AIADMK today said it would not allow its sidelined leader T T V Dhinakaran to use the party name, adding that it would seek legal recourse in the matter. Senior AIADMK leader D Jayakumar was responding to the Delhi High Court today allowing Dhinakaran’s plea for allotment of a common symbol, preferably a ‘pressure cooker’, and a suitable name of his choice for the party faction led by him.

“We will not allow Dhinakaran to use the name AIADMK and we will take all legal steps for this purpose,” the state fisheries minister told reporters here. Though anyone can start a party, we are determined that no one uses the party name AIADMK, the senior leader said. Earlier in the day, Justice Rekha Palli of the Delhi High Court had directed the Election Commission to do the needful within three weeks after giving Dhinakaran’s faction an appropriate hearing.

The court order came on an interim application filed by the V K Sasikala-Dhinakaran faction in their main petition challenging the Election Commission’s November 23 order last year, which had allotted the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol to the group headed by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam. Panneerselvam is AIADMK coordinator while Palaniswami is the co-coordinator.

Dhinakaran, who won the RK Nagar bypoll held in December last as an independent candidate on the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol, had earlier told the court that he needed a temporary name and symbol for his group to interact with the electorate in the eventuality of elections to local bodies or any other polls held before his claim to the party’s symbol was decided.

His faction had given a list of three names including All India Amma Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The AIADMK was founded by charismatic yesteryear cinema star M G Ramachandran in 1972, after he parted ways with the DMK owing to differences with M Karunanidhi.