History repeats as EC freezes AIADMK election symbol

The two factions, led by K Palaniswamy and O Panneerselvam, have also been asked to pick new party names for the bypoll, which was necessitated by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s death.

"Neither of the two groups shall be permitted to use the name of the party 'All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam' simplicitor; neither of the aforesaid two groups shall also be permitted to use the symbol 'two leaves', reserved for 'All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam'," the order said.

The EC had frozen the AIADMK symbol ahead of the 1989 Assembly elections as well, when former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran's wife Janaki Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa competed for it, following his demise.

After a day-long hearing in New Delhi, the Commission said since there is little time available with it to issue a final order, it is issuing an interim one. The three-member panel headed by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said they did not want to rush to a conclusion that might be "erroneous".

"No one would grudge the fact that it is almost humanly impossible to study all the aforesaid records running into more than 20,000 pages (submitted just a day earlier)," the commission stated, adding it had to go through the arguments presented by two sides before coming to a "definite finding or conclusion".

Both groups will be allotted different symbols as they may choose from the list of free symbols notified by the Election Commission.

Thursday is the last date to file nominations for the April 12 bypoll.

The OPS camp has announced E Madhusudhanan's name as its candidate for the bypoll in RK Nagar. TTV Dinakaran, AIADMK deputy general secretary and nephew of Sasikala, is the candidate from the other camp.

(with inputs from PTI)

• AIADMK
• election commission
• RK Nagar bypoll