Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Dr S Ramdoss has moved the Madras High Court seeking a stay on a 2025 Election Commission of India (ECI) notification that allotted the party’s official symbol, the mango, to his son and rival faction leader, Anbumani Ramdoss.
The ECI had, in July, allotted the official party symbol to the Anbumani-led faction, which is at odds with Ramdoss and his supporters. Challenging this decision, Ramdoss has filed a writ petition seeking recovery of the symbol.
According to a report by The Hindu, Ramdoss contended that Anbumani had misled the Election Commission by submitting forged documents to falsely claim that he continued to be the president of the party. Ramdoss asserted that Anbumani had already been removed from the post and from the party’s primary membership.
Ramdoss claimed that the Election Commission’s communication allotting the symbol was wrongfully sent to Anbumani Ramdoss’s address on Tilak Street in T Nagar and that it should instead have been sent to his own address on Nattu Muthu Naicken Street in T Nagar, since he was the party founder and incumbent president.
He maintained that the Election Commission had only decided to allot the mango symbol as the official party symbol for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections and the upcoming elections in Tamil Nadu, and that the communication was erroneously sent to Anbumani, who had been removed from the office of party president. Ramdoss maintained that he has been holding office as party president since May 2025.
On September 15, however, the Anbumani faction claimed that the ECI had accepted Anbumani’s presidentship and confirmed his Tilak Street address as the official party address. Ramdoss disputed this claim, calling it a misrepresentation.
The Pattali Makkal Katchi has seen a split between the founder and Anbumani after long-brewing tensions escalated sharply on September 11, when Dr Ramdoss expelled Anbumani from the party’s primary membership. Earlier, he had appointed his grandson, P Mukundan, son of Anbumani’s sister Gandhimathi, as youth wing president, a move that triggered open opposition from Anbumani.