AIADMK two-leaves symbol: Centre has influenced EC decision, Dhinakaran says Sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Thursday said the Election Commission of India had failed to act in a free and fair manner in the AIADMK party symbol dispute. As per affidavits submitted to EC, EPS-OPS faction has support of 34 Lok Sabha MPs, 8 Rajya Sabha MPs, 111 TN MLAs and 4 Puducherry MLAs.As for Dhinakaran group, it submitted affidavits from only 3 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs each andandnbsp;20 TN MLAs, of which 18 stand disqualified under the Tenth Schedule. "The Commission is of the considered opinion that the petitioners group led by Shri E Madhusudhanan, O Panneerselvam and S Semmalai, and also supported presently by the impleading applicant Shri E K Palaniswami, the present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, enjoys support majority of members, both in the organisational and legislature wings of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. The Madras High Court had earlier ordered EC to conduct the bypoll, cancelled in April this year over large-scale attempts by all parties to bribe voters, by December 30.A bitter three-way fight for Jayalalithaa's legacy had broken out after her death. Party rivals Palanisamy and Panneerselvam had subsequently sunk their differences and united as one camp around three months ago.

Source: Times of India November 23, 2017 09:11 UTC