Chennai, March 28 The MDMK's decision to contest only one seat in Tamil Nadu, as part of the INDIA bloc in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, has led to it losing the opportunity to contest under the "top" symbol.
The party has fielded Durai Vaiko, the son of party founder leader Vaiko, from the Tiruchi Lok Sabha seat.
It had moved the Madras High Court, seeking allotment of the symbol, but the EC on Wednesday told the court that the party’s plea for the symbol could have been considered if it had contested in at least two seats in this Lok Sabha polls.
The high court subsequently disposed of the MDMK's writ petition, observing that it was too late in the day to consider the request since the last date for filing nominations ended on Wednesday and there was no chance of the party’s fielding one more candidate.
A bench of Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy recorded the submission of ECI counsel Niranjan Rajagopalan that the Commission had considered the party’s representation, but rejected since the rules do not permit such an allotment.
Rajagopalan informed the court that the MDMK lost the right to the exclusive use of the symbol after it lost its recognition in 2010 when it failed to secure the minimum number of votes required.
Counsel also told the court that the ‘top’ was neither in the list of reserved symbols nor had it been pushed to the list of free symbols because there was no provision in the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order of 1968 for a reserved symbol to be automatically shifted to the free symbols category on account of a party’s de-recognition.
He said that the MDMK could have sought the allotment of the ‘top’ symbol by utilising a concession that could be extended to de-recognised political parties, under Para 10B(B)(i), if it had decided to contest in at least two Parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu this year.
Since the party had given a representation indicating that it intends to contest in the Tiruchi Parliamentary constituency alone this year, even such a concession was not possible, the EC lawyer said.
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