The Madras High Court directed Indhiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK), All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) and Puthiya Tamilagam Katchi (PT) to re-send their applications within Tuesday to be allotted a common symbol for their respective candidates and directed the Election Commission to consider the application and issue orders by Wednesday evening. The High Court made the observation while hearing a batch of petitions given by parties including by IJK party leader Ravi Pachamuthu seeking to give a common symbol for all the contestants of their parties in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry elections.
The case came up for hearing before a bench comprising Chief Justice of Madras High Court Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Tuesday. Advocate Nirajan Rajagopalan appearing for the Election Commission said, the party (IJK) in their application seeking a common symbol did not mention the members of the party and now the deadline is over for allotting common symbols for the party.
The counsel appearing for IJK, senior lawyer Sundaresan and lawyer V Venkatesan argued that the party submitted the details but the application was still rejected on March 11.
Puthiya Tamilagam Party leader Krishnasamy and All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi founder Sarath Kumar also gave separate pleas seeking a common symbol for all their party members.
Observing all the petitions, the bench ordered Election Commission to consider the applications once the parties submit them. The court also ordered IJK, AISMK and PT to re-send an application by Tuesday and directed the Election Commission to consider the applications and issue orders by Wednesday evening.
The AISMK and IJK are contesting 40 seats each in the upcoming elections as part of the alliance with Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM). The Puthiya Tamilagam party that left the AIADMK alliance announced that the party will contest alone in all 234 constituencies in the upcoming elections. The party's leader Krishnaswamy also released the first list of 60 candidates and announced that he will contest from Ottapidaram constituency and he will be the CM candidate for his party.
Voting for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections will be held on April 6 and the results will be declared on May 2.