Sasikala may fight EC move on poll symbol
CHENNAI: Expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader VK Sasikala is likely to challenge in the Supreme Court the Election Commission’s 2017 decision of allotting the party name and the iconic two-leaves symbol to sitting Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi Palaniswami’s party, her lawyer said on Monday.
At the time, two factions of the AIADMK were fighting for control of the party and the poll watchdog decided in favour of the Palaniswami-led faction. Sasikala was close aide of former CM J Jayalalithaa.
“We will file a curative petition soon,” said Sasikala’s lawyer Raja Senthoor Pandian. “We haven’t filed a case so far due to the pandemic. We thought of filing it once she is out. We have to discuss.”
On November 23, 2017, the EC allotted Palaniswami-led faction with the ‘two leaves’ symbol after freezing it briefly when two factions – the other led by Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran -- were vying for it following Jayalalithaa’s death in
December 2016. Sasikala and Dhinakaran challenged this decision in the Delhi HC, which upheld the EC order in 2019. The SC also dismissed two petitions -in March 2019 and in July 2020.
A curative petition is the last legal option in a case. Tamil Nadu is scheduled to go to polls in April-may. Sasikala was hospitalised a week before her release from prison in Bengaluru on January 27 after serving a four-year jail term in a disproportionate assets case. On Sunday, she was discharged from hospital where she was treated for Covid-19.
AIADMK, which expelled Sasikala and Dhinakaran in 2017, has condemned her move. Palaniswami has made it clear that Sasikala will not be taken back.