Rival 'Amma' teams to clash with 'Hat and 'Electric Pole' symbols for Jayalalithaa seat

The seat fell vacant with the death of J Jayalalithaa, the state's chief minister and the leader of the AIADMK party.

With rival factions of AIADMK wanting to use the party name and the 'two leaves" symbol, the Election Commission froze the name and the symbol and asked the rival groups to get new names and symbols for approval for the April 12 bypoll, media reported.

The Election Commission, on Thursday, approved the name 'AIADMK Amma' and the'Hat' symbol for the Sasikala camp while it approved the name 'AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi Amma' and the 'Electric Pole' symbol for the Panneerselvan camp.

On Thursday, the last date for filing nominations, the Sasikala camp submitted the nominations with Sasikala's nephew TTV Dinakaran as the party candidate, media reports said.

Sasikala had named nephew Dinakaran as the deputy general secretary of the party when she was sent to jail in a disproportionate assets case.

Announcing the founding of MGR Amma Deepa Peravai on February 24, Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar had said she will contest from R K Nagar Assembly constituency, according to media reports.

The Panneerselvam camp had announced that veteran leader E. Madhusudhanan will be its candidate.

The DMK has announced N Maruthuganesh as its candidate for the April 12 bypoll, according to media reports.

Gangai Amaran, a well-known music composer, who joined the BJP in 2014, will be the BJP candidate in RK Nagar bypoll, media reports said.

Meanwhile, Tamil superstar, tweeted on Thursday, "My support is for no one in the coming elections."