Chennai: The Supreme Court’s directive to allot a common symbol to the candidates of T T V Dhinakaran’a AMMK can be termed as boon and bane to the party.
Though the cooker symbol which the party sought to contest in the Lok Sabha elections and the 18 Assembly by-polls has been denied by the Election Commission and Supreme Court, Dhinakaran’s faction would be contented that they will get a uniform symbol to battle it out in all the constituencies.
While it may be easy to seek votes from the public for a single symbol, there is another flip side to it. The contestants who win in the common symbol allotted to the AMMK do not have to stay with the party after the elections. Though they will contest in common symbols, the candidates will still be treated as Independent contestants.
Political analyst Umesh Subramani said if the AMMK candidates are elected and if they decided to switch loyalty after the elections, no action can be taken against them under the Anti-Defection law.
However, the party cadres are confident that none of the candidates will leave Dhinakaran’s side. “We have been with him during the troubled times and will not leave him after tasting victory. The MLAs who were disqualified are still with him and this is evidence enough of the cadres’ loyalty to our leader,” said a party cadre.
Speaking about being allotted a common symbol, the cadre said, “We were prepared even to contest in different symbols, if we were not given a common symbol. Dhinakaran has already proved that symbol does not matter, by winning the R K Nagar by-poll contesting in the cooker symbol and defeating the two leaves and rising sun. History will repeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha election as well.”
Sources said following the Supreme Court’s directive on Tuesday, Dhinakaran advocate Sendhura Paandian has approached the Election Commission with three symbols and has asked it to allot one from it.
In a petition, the party has asked to allot the symbol at the earliest to carry out election campaigning of the party.
It may be noted that Dhinakaran will begin his campaign today.