Party Symbol Case: Unified AIADMK Submits Fresh Affidavits To EC

New Delhi: The unified AIADMK on Friday submitted fresh affidavits to the Election Commission (EC), claiming that it has the support of the majority of the party's lawmakers as well as office bearers and should be given the 'two leaves' poll symbol.

MLA C V Shanmugam, who was part of a delegation that made the submissions at the EC, said affidavits from 95 per cent of party cadres supporting the merged faction have been submitted. According to a source in the party, affidavits of 115 MLAs, 44 MPs, 52 district secretaries, 126 town secretaries and over 1,200 village secretaries from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Maharashtra and Puducherry, have been submitted.

K P Munuswami, senior leader of the unified AIADMK, while speaking to reporters, said decisions taken in the party's general council meeting on September 12 after the merger of the factions led by O Panneerselvam and E Palaniswami have also been submitted apart from the affidavits. "All the numbers required to secure the party symbol have been reflected in the number of affidavits we have submitted. We are confident that we will get the symbol," he said.

The Election Commission had asked all parties in the party symbol dispute case to submit their documents on or before September 29 and scheduled a hearing on October 6. The poll panel's move had come following the Madras High Court's directive to it to settle the issue before October 31. The unified AIADMK delegation included D Jayakumar, R B Udayakumar, C V Shanmugam, Manoj Pandian and MP V Maitreyan. The EC had yesterday rejected the plea of rival faction, headed by ousted party interim General Secretary V K Sasikala and her nephew T T V Dhinakaran, seeking more time and maintained that the hearing would take place as scheduled on October 6.