EPS moves SC to outwit OPS

Ahead of the Erode Easyt by-poll, former Chief Minister and AIADMK leader moved the Supreme Court seeking its intervention after the Election Commission of India (ECI) refused to accept the candidate selected by his faction for the by-election even after he signed off the letter in his capacity as the interim general secretary of the party.

The ECI had scheduled the by-poll for Erode East constituency on February 27 after the seat fell vacant due to the demise of its MLA Thirumagan Eevera on January 4. As per the poll pact, the DMK and its allies allocated the seat to the Congress who in turn announced the former union minister and the father of deceased MLA EVKS Elangovan as the candidate. 

DMDK, which had announced its decision to contest alone in the by-poll, announced its functionary S Anand as the candidate, while Naam Tamizhar party is likely to announce a woman as their candidate on Sunday. 
In the case of AIADMK, both EPS and O Panneerselvam had made separate announcements regarding the nomination of a candidate from their party.

EPS  SC to outwit OPS 

EPS and his faction had filed a petition before the bench comprising Justice Maheswari Dinesh on Friday. In the petition, they said, “We want to nominate a candidate of our choice in the upcoming by-poll. But the election commission is refusing to recognize the candidate who has been signed off by EPS in his capacity as the interim general secretary of AIADMK. The Court should intervene and direct the ECI to recognize the candidate.” To the bench’s question on whether their decision was communicated to OPS, they gave a positive answer. Following which, the bench had directed the petitioners to appear on Monday.

Accepting his sign off would mean that the commission has recorded EPS as the interim general secretary of the party and abolished the post of coordinator which was held by OPS.   This would also mean that EPS would be able to assign the party’s ‘two-leaves’ symbol to any candidate of his choice without having OPS to sign off on it.  Earlier, such matters required both the leaders to sign for their candidates.