Dhinakaran to float political party to 'retrieve AIADMK' on March 15

After a series of legal skirmishes over allotment of a party symbol, sidelined AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran today said that he would announce the name of his political party and unveil the flag in Madurai later this week.

"Following the acceptance of our plea in the Delhi High Court, a function to announce the name of the party and introduce the party flag will be held on March 15 at 9 am at Melur in Madurai district," he said in a statement here.

The Delhi High Court, on March 9, allowed Dhinakaran's plea for allotment of a common symbol, preferably 'pressure cooker', and a name of his choice for the AIADMK faction led by him.

The court order came on an interim application filed by the Dhinakaran-V K Sasikala faction in their main petition challenging the Election Commission's November 23 order last year, which had allotted 'two leaves' symbol to the group headed by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

Panneerselvam is the coordinator of the AIADMK and Palaniswami is the joint coordinator.

Dhinakaran, who won the RK Nagar Assembly bypoll, held in December last as an independent candidate on the 'pressure cooker' symbol, had earlier told the court that he needed a temporary name and symbol for his group to interact with the electorate in the eventuality of elections to local bodies or any other polls.

The by-poll was necessitated by the death of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Dhinakaran appealed to his supporters and the public to participate in the function in large numbers.

The RK Nagar MLA's announcement to launch a political party comes weeks after actor-politician Kamal Haasan floated his party 'Makkal Needhi Maiam' in Madurai.

On December 31, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth had announced his decision to enter politics but he is yet to launch a party.