AIADMK's two-leaves symbol torn apart in OPS-EPS faction feud

Amid the fight for leadership, the AIADMK is set to miss the local body by-polls to be held on July 9. The by-elections are being held for 510 seats that fell vacant in rural and urban local bodies and, of these, 34 can be contested under party symbols. 

For the AIADMK, the problem is that as a result of the factional war between the O Panneerselvam (OPS) and Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) groups, the party’s two-leaves symbol has become a bone of contention. Thus, it cannot be used by any candidate till a resolution is reached between the two camps. As per the AIADMK’s party by-laws, the power of allotting the party symbol to a contestant rests with the general secretary, who has to sign the Form A and Form B papers.

Also read: EPS takes OPS head on, says both AIADMK leaders should go back to original posts

Critical political juncture

At a time when the BJP in Tamil Nadu is trying to project itself as an alternative to the AIADMK and main opposition party to the DMK, losing 34 local body seats would cost the AIADMK as it would weaken its cadre base in the rural regions. Moreover, most of these seats are in southern districts where the AIADMK still has significant support.

Of the 34 seats to be contested under party symbols, 12 are in urban local bodies — corporation ward councillors (one ward each in two corporations), municipal ward councillors (one ward each in two municipalities) and eight town panchayat ward members. The remaining 22 are in rural local bodies – 20 panchayat union ward members and two district panchayat ward members.

“This is the first time in the history of AIADMK that a leader has said that he won’t sign the contestants’ Form A and Form B papers. It is the first time that the party contestants have lost their two-leaves symbol, which is close to their hearts…Our cadres will teach that leader a good lesson soon,” AIADMK senior leader JCT Prabhakar from the OPS camp told The Federal.

Countering the claim, another senior leader, Semmalai from the EPS team, said that since the party hasn’t announced any candidate for these by-polls officially, the non-use of the two-leaves symbol won’t arise.

Watch: Who are OPS and EPS and how did they rise to the spotlight?

“The two-leaves symbol will be given to candidates only when they are officially announced by the party. As far as this by-poll is concerned, the party hasn’t announced any candidate. But it has also not said that the cadres should not participate in these elections. The party hasn’t announced the candidates because both the coordinator and co-coordinator posts have ceased,” he said.

In the past, too, the AIADMK has kept off active participation in by-polls and that doesn’t affect the party in any way, he added.

Polls big and small

According to a local-bodies election official, parties often choose not to contest in the rural local bodies because those posts are considered “small” and restricted to a single panchayat. “But in the urban local bodies, the stakes are high. There is a large vote bank and hence they are considered bigger posts,” he said.

Prof G Palanithurai, an authority on panchayat raj who has been following local body elections for many years, said that since local bodies are a state subject, state governments can take a call on conducting local body polls with party symbols. 

“In Kerala and West Bengal, even the seats for village panchayat president are contested on party symbols. In Tamil Nadu, the panchayat president’s post is service-oriented sans any major revenue. So, the state would have decided not to conduct elections for those posts on party symbols,” he said.

Two-leaves symbol, circa 1973

The coming by-poll elections may not be very significant, but for AIADMK the issue also has an emotional value. For, it was the decision to contest a by-poll – the first election that the party contested — that resulted in it getting the now prized two-leaves symbol.

The year was 1973. The Lok Sabha by-election for Dindigul constituency was announced and scheduled for May 20. The seven-month-old Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (ADMK) party (later AIADMK) decided to contest that election. The party founder and chief MG Ramachandran (MGR) gave a ticket to K Maya Thevar, a lawyer, who was influential in that region and whose birth centenary falls this year.

To get an election symbol, Maya Thevar approached the district collector of Madurai. It should be remembered that Dindigul was then a part of Madurai and carved out as a separate district only in 1985. The district administration showed him 16 independent symbols and asked him to choose one. Maya Thevar chose the two-leaves symbol, which subsequently acquired cult status in Tamil Nadu.

“The two-leaves would wither before the sun,” said many leaders of the DMK during the campaign. (The ‘rising sun’ is the DMK symbol.) However, Maya Thevar won with a big margin, pushing the DMK to the third place. The victory gave the AIADMK the confidence in the years to come and the two-leaves became the totem for MGR followers. MGR even went on to ask his cadres to tattoo the symbol on their hands.

Fifty years down the line, it appears that the two-leaves face the threat of withering away. The OPS-EPS divide has deprived the prospective candidates of the two-leaves symbol. 

‘By-polls and two-leaves’

While the 1973 Dindigul by-election was an acid test for the ADMK, the state assembly by-poll in 1974 for Coimbatore West paved the path for the party to get into the Assembly. In that election, the party gave the ticket to C Aranganayagam, who later went on to serve as an education minister in both MGR and J Jayalalithaa’s cabinet. He was the first person from the ADMK to enter the TN Assembly.

Senior journalist Govi Lenin, in an interview to a YouTube channel, said that when Jayalalithaa became the chief of AIADMK after a tussle with MGR’s widow Janaki Ramachandran, and she got the two-leaves symbol, it gave a positive result in the Madurai East and Marungapuri Assembly by-election in 1989.

“In the January 1989 election, the Janaki group was given a pair of pigeons and the Jayalalithaa group a cock as symbols. Due to rivalry, members from both the groups started to kill the birds of each other’s group. This made the Election Commission decide that thereafter no birds or animals would be chosen as party symbols. Following the defeat of both the groups in the election, Janaki gave way to Jayalalithaa and the Election Commission restored the two-leaves symbol. That immediately reflected in the by-election held a month later,” he said.

It appears that Jayalalithaa indeed believed in the power of the two-leaves. That made the AIADMK contest alone in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, a kind of decision which even MGR had not taken.

The power of the symbol

R Muthukumar, a historian of Dravidian politics, said in an article that the power of the two-leaves symbol was such that it even defeated MGR himself.

“During the 1977 Assembly polls, MGR announced Alangiyam Balakrishnan as the candidate for Dharapuram constituency. Another candidate named Ayyasamy contested independently from the same constituency. The two-leaves symbol was mistakenly allotted to Ayyasamy instead of Balakrishnan. The latter was allotted the lion symbol. MGR then campaigned for the lion symbol and asked the voters not to vote for the two-leaves. However, Ayyasamy won that election,” he said.

Also read: AIADMK leader OPS on south TN tour, Sasikala visits north

The two-leaves symbol thus became a powerful tool.  In fact, when Jayalalithaa okayed the Form A and Form B papers — which are required under symbol order rules — of the candidates who were contesting in the by-polls of Aravakurichi, Thanjavur and Thirupparankundram in 2016, it created a huge issue because instead of her signature, her left thumb impression was on the papers. It must be remembered that Jayalalithaa was under treatment in a private hospital in September 2016.

There were allegations that even the court and the Election Commission failed to verify the authenticity of the thumb impression and the doctor who certified the thumb impression was later appointed as member-secretary, Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu, which manages cadaver transplant in the state.

Today, MGR’s memorial in Chennai has a two-leaves-like structure at the entrance. When it was constructed, the DMK, then in the opposition, alleged gross misuse of power. The then AIADMK government insisted the structure was not, in fact, two-leaves. Visitors to the memorial know otherwise.