AIADMK symbol: Poll panel hearing to go on as both sides cry delay tactics

Mukul Rohatgi, former attorney-general and counsel for Chief Minister E K Palaniswami in the dispute, accused sidelined party leader T T V Dinakaran’s counsel of deliberately trying to drag the proceedings.

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Dinakaran, TTV Dinakarn, AIADMK, AIADMk symbol, Supreme court, Tamil nadu, Sasikala,

AIADMK leader T T V Dinakaran

THE FOURTH hearing of the dispute over the AIADMK’s election symbol — two leaves — remained inconclusive on Monday, with rival factions accusing each other of trying to delay a decision on the issue. With the Supreme Court deadline for the Election Commission of India (EC) to resolve the dispute coming up next week, the poll panel will hear the two sides next on Wednesday.

Mukul Rohatgi, former attorney-general and counsel for Chief Minister E K Palaniswami in the dispute, accused sidelined party leader T T V Dinakaran’s counsel of deliberately trying to drag the proceedings. “They are going on filing new applications,” he told reporters today.

“It is a desperate attempt to delay the case so that the judgment is delayed. Their arguments show that they are not in favour of the party but in favour of freezing the symbol.”

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Dinakaran’s lawyers in turn alleged that the Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam faction wants to avoid cross-examination of affidavits and is thus accusing their side of “unnecessarily delaying the process”. Another lawyer for Dinakaran said 10 AIADMK members had appeared before the EC on Monday and alleged that they were threatened to sign the affidavits in favour of the ruling faction.

The dispute over the party’s poll symbol had begun between then rival Palaniswami and Panneerselvam camps soon after J Jayalalithaa’s death. The two later came together and sidelined Dinakaran, nephew of sidelined party chief and a close confidante of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who is now the other party in the case.

Lawyers from the Panneerselvam camp on Monday objected to lengthy arguments from the Dinakaran faction and cited time constraint.

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