Months after the AIADMK split into two warring fractions following the demise of it’s leader J Jayalalithaa, the Election Commission on Thursday denied the original “two leaves” symbol to either factions. The O Panneerselvam camp will now be known as ‘AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma’ party and will contest under an ‘Electric pole’ symbol. Team Sasikala, which was first offered an ‘auto-rickshaw’ symbol, later settled for a ‘hat’. It will now fight the upcoming by-poll to Chennai’s RK Nagar constituency as ‘AIADMK AMMA.’ The seat was held by former Chief Minister and party supremo J Jayalalithaa, and fell vacant following her death in December last year.
While the OPS camp has fielded E Madhusudanan in the upcoming by-poll, team Sasikala has handpicked Party’s Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran in the fight for Amma’s seat.
The AIADMK showed signs of a rift in January after OPS staged a massive revolt against VK Sasikala, who was all set to replace him as Chief Minister. What followed was a bitter battle in which both sides clamoured over their claims to the AIADMK throne. While OPS accused VK Sasikala of forcing him to resign as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Sasikala expelled OPS from the party, saying that he had joined hands with rival DMK.
However, a Supreme Court judgement that held Sasikala guilty of colluding with Jayalalithaa in a graft case put an end to Chinamma’s political dreams. She then appointed loyalist E Palanisamy as CM, while appointing nephew Dinakaran as party deputy General Secretary.
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