Following the Election Commission’s rejection of T. T. V. Dhinakaran’s plea for an extension of time to submit documents in the disputed ‘Two Leaves’ symbol case, the sidelined AIADMK leader filed a petition before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday, challenging the poll body’s decision.
In his petition, Mr. Dhinakaran said that the Election Commission’s direction for fresh submissions and affidavits would enlarge the scope of the dispute.
There were already seven lakh pages of affidavits and pleadings filed before the Election Commission, in which 102 MLAs, 37 MPs and 1,912 members of the party’s General Council and Executive Committee had expressed their support to him.
Mr. Dhinakaran said that since the Election Commission had denied him time to file additional documents, he would not have any scope to rebut the fresh documents being filed by the rival faction (headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami). Around 20,000 pages of documents have been filed before the Election Commission, and some party members have retracted their previous stance. He insisted that the cause of such retractions should be verified, and he himself needed to file close to 1,000 pages, which would need time.
Hence, the petition seeking extension of time of up to three weeks to prove his support base was filed before the court.
He further stated that the October 31 deadline to settle the party symbol dispute was set by the High Court on an incorrect presentation, and contended that there was no urgency to settle the matter as the State Election Commission had sought time to complete the delimitation process before holding the election to local bodies.
The Madurai Bench had earlier directed the Election Commission to decide on the symbol dispute by October 31.
It also directed the Commission to issue directions to the parties concerned to submit the necessary documents.
The EC had directed the parties to the dispute to submit the necessary documents by September 29. The poll body will hear the case on October 6.
CPI flays sedition charge
Meanwhile, CPI State Secretary R. Mutharasan on Tuesday condemned the filing of a sedition case against sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran and his supporters.
In a statement, Mr. Mutharasan said that in recent times, the police had filed false cases against those who were undertaking campaigns against the government by distributing pamphlets and undertaking peaceful protests.
