AIADMK factions file documents with EC

Beating the deadline, rival AIADMK factions on Friday filed documents with the Election Commission buttressing their case in the claim for the party name and the "Two Leaves" symbol.

Truckloads of documents were filed by the faction headed by Edappadi Palaniswamy and O. Panneerselvam purporting to be statements by General Council members, MPs and MLAs to support their claim for the symbol which has been frozen in the wake of the split in the party after the death of Jayalalithaa.

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister D. Jayakumar and one of the leaders of the faction, K.P. Munusamy, told reporters that they were confident that the "Two Leaves" symbol would come to their faction because of the "100 per cent" support of the General Council members. "The letters of support from whatever number of MPs, MLAs and General Council needed for bagging the symbol have been given," Munusamy said.

They were accompanied by Law Minister C.V. Shanmugham, Rajya Sabha member V. Maitreyan and party leader and lawyer Manoj Pandian.

The rival faction headed by T.T.V.Dinakaran also filed documents on Friday after the Commission rejected its plea for giving 15 days more time for filing documents.

The lawyer for the faction, Raja Sendoorpandi, said 54 volumes of documents were filed with the Commission and three days more time has been sought for submitting documents of leaders from some of the 55 districts.

The Commission has fixed Oct 6 for hearing the dispute citing the urgency in the matter after the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court had directed the Commission to sort out the matter before Oct 31.

Meanwhile, some General Council members of the Karnataka unit of the party owing allegiance to Dinkaran also submitted documents before the Commission claiming that they were duped by the rival faction leaders Edappadi Palaniswamy and O.Panneerselvam into signing some documents retracing an earlier statement, according to Pugazhendi, Karnataka party unit chief.

--IANS

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