TTV lists 3 names for party to Election Commission

RK Nagar legislator TTV Dinakaran on Thursday sought three names for his new party from the Election Commission and all the three contained the usage ‘Dravidar’ coined by DK founder EVR Periyar, instead of the changed version of ‘Dravida’ brought by DMK founder CN Annadurai to soften the strong ‘anti-Brahmin’ stand.

Annadurai dropped the letter ‘r’ from the party name and defined Dravida as a culture and policy and anyone including people from the Brahmin community was admitted into the party. Periyar used the word ‘Dravidar’ and defined the DK as a party which bars people of the Brahmin community from joining the party. When the case came up for hearing at the Delhi High Court, senior advocate Kapil Sibal submitted three names-Amma Anna Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam, MGR Amma Dravidar Kazhagam and Amma MGR Dravidar Munnetra Kazhagam. Lawyer Raja Senthur Pandiyan, who explained about the hearing said all the three names were chosen by Dinakaran himself.

Opposing the plea for allocation of a symbol for Dinakaran’s party, senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan said, “There is no urgency to allocate a symbol for Dinakaran’s party since the local body elections is to be held in May only.” He also said Dinakaran could not make a claim for the AIADMK’s name since he is not a member of the party. Meanwhile, Dinakaran announced his tour programme for Villupuram district, the first in north Tamil Nadu. He would start the tour from February 25 to 28. It would cover six Assembly seats in the district-Villupuram, Tindivanam, Vikravandi, Mailam, Vanur and Gingee.

Disqualified AIADMK MLA Thangathamizhselvan on Thursday declined the open offer of minister’s post for him by Minister SP Velumani. He said he did not leave the ruling party since it did not offer him a minister post and asserted that he would stand with Dinakaran. Speaking at a function in Coimbatore, Velumani had said the ruling party leaders had thought of inducting Thangathamizhselvam in the ministry.