Tamil Nadu : AIADMK leader V. Pugazhenthi on Tuesday filed a petition before the Chief Election Commission in Delhi, saying that in compliance with the Supreme Court order, Edappadi K. Palaniswami should not be allowed to sign nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections as AIADMK general secretary.
V. Pugazhenthi, who described himself as a member of the AIADMK Coordination Committee, has said in his petition to the Election Commission:
The term of 6 Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu has been declared over. In view of this, not only Edappadi Palaniswami but leaders of any faction have been asked to nominate candidates for Rajya Sabha elections on behalf of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AA&PP).
No right to sign the form.
The reason is that the Supreme Court had ordered that the allotment of two leaves election symbol as an interim arrangement in the case filed in 2022, as per the judgment delivered on 03-02-2023, is applicable only for the by-election process of Erode East Assembly Constituency and not beyond that.
This means that AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswamy or any other faction is not authorised to sign the form on behalf of AIADMK after the Erode East Assembly election scheduled to be held in 2023. The AIADMK case is under investigation by the Election Commission of India as per the orders of Madras High Court and Delhi High Court dated March 15, 2024.
Further, arguments have been submitted to the Election Commission of India that two leaves election symbol should not be allotted to any faction of AIADMK till the civil court cases are concluded.
