It’s a well known fact that the ‘Two-leaves’ symbol of the AIADMK party was frozen soon after the death of the former chief minister J. Jayalalitha, as the party was split into two. One of which was lead by Chief minister Edappadi k. Palaniswamy  and the other by Sasikala. And now EC has given the symbol to the party lead by EPS.

The symbol was frozen  the EC so as to avoid confusions, as  both the parties claimed that the symbol belonged to them as their party was the heir of the AIADMK party.

To determine the relative strength of the two groups in the organisational wing of the AIADMK, the EC looked at the members of General Council.  It argued that the Commission cannot be expected to hold a referendum among the millions of primary members of the AIADMK.

“The petitioners group (EPS-OPS) has demonstrated overwhelming support among the members of the General Council and, consequently, the Commission hereby holds that the petitioners’ group enjoys the majority support among the members of the General Council and, thus, in the organizational wing of the party,” ruled the EC.

According to the reports, as far as the affidavits filed by MPs and MLAs was concerned, EPS-OPS faction has the support of 111 MLAs against Sasikala-Dhinakaran’s 20. Thirty-four Lok Sabha MPs and 8 Rajya Sabha MPs signed affidavits supporting the ruling camp, while only 3 Lok Sabha and 3 Rajya Sabha MPs came out in support of Sasikala and Dhinakaran.

In its final order, the Election Commission stated, “Having regard to the findings of the Commission in the foregoing paragraphs, the Commission is of the considered opinion that the petitioners group led by Shri E. Madhusudhanan, O. Panneerselvam and S. Semmalai, and also supported presently by the impleading applicant Shri E.K Palaniswami, the present Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, enjoys support of majority of members, both in the organizational and legislature wings of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Accordingly, the said group led by Shri E. Madhusudhanan and others is hereby recognized, in terms of para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968, as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which is a recognized State Party in the State of Tamil Nadu and in the Union Territory of Puducherry, for whom the symbol ‘Two Leaves’ is reserved in the said State and Union Territory. Consequently, the said group led by Shri E. Madhusudhanan will be entitled to use the name of the party’ All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’ and its reserved symbol ‘Two Leaves’.”

“The EC has given a good decision. They have allocated the symbol to us. They have given this decision based on the  number of cadres, MPs, MLAs who are on our side. We submitted affidavits to prove that majority of party cadres are with us. We are happy. This is a fair decision by the EC.”

Maithreyan, a senior AIADMK leader and an MP, who is in the side of EPS- OPS group says that, they are the only party to get back the symbol and said that this is the second time the party gets back the symbol. Previously the party got the symbol back after the death of the then chief minister M.G. Ramachandran and now after the death of  J. Jayalalitha.