NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, DEC 13
Days ahead of the Tamil Nadu civic polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has registered the TTV Dhinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) as a political party, overruling the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s objection.
Coincidentally, the EC announcement came as the birthday gift to AMMK founder Dhinakaran.
Sources here said that ECI has said in its order “there is no similarity in the names of the two parties”.
It also rejected AIADMK’s another objection against AMMK for using the word “Amma” in its name, saying it did not find any merit in that as it was a commonly used word to refer to the mother.
The ECI’s order, signed by its secretary Dilip K Verma, was sent to AMMK General Secretary Dhinakaran, the nephew of Jayalalithaa’s friend V N Sasikala.
Dhinakaran won the RK Nagar Assembly constituency in Chennai in a by-election after the death of Jayalalithaa in December 2016. Jayalalithaa was elected from the seat earlier.
EC sources said since AMMK had become a registered political party, preference would be given to it in the allotment of symbols among the free symbols during polls. However, it will not be applicable in the forthcoming local bodies poll in Tamil Nadu as it was conducted by the state election commission.
On AIADMK’s objection that Dhinakaran was expelled from it and disowned by Jayalalithaa when she was alive and hence he had no locus standi to start a party in her name, the EC said the claim had nothing to do with the eligibility of a party to get registered.
The AMMK had cited precedents of political parties with similar names being registered.
The EC had registered Aam Aadmi Party, led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, and another political party with the name AAP.
For AMMK, to become a recognised state party, all the candidates fielded by it should get at least six per cent of the total votes polled in an election to a Lok Sabha/State Legislative Assembly.
