The rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran on Tuesday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the order of the Delhi High Court dismissing his petition in connection with the dispute over the  party’s “two leaves” election symbol case. Dhinakaran now heads the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK). The Delhi high court had earlier upheld the Election Commission’s order that granted the symbol of the AIADMK to the faction led by chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

The Delhi HC had in November 2017 upheld the EC decision saying that none of the grounds of challenge raised by the Dhinakaran-Sasikala faction were made out and there was “no infirmity” in the poll panel’s order allotting the party name and symbol to the group led by Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.

Dhinakaran, a claimant for the legacy of former CM Jayalalithaa, had launched the AMMK after being ousted from the AIADMK along with Sasikala in September 2017. The EC has allotted the ‘pressure cooker’ symbol, as an interim measure, to Dinakaran faction last year during the by-poll to the R K Nagar Assembly constituency which he won with a thumping 40,000 votes margin

–India Legal Bureau