In his reply to the interlocutory petition filed by Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) in the Supreme Court, seeking directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to recognise him as interim general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and accept his signature on nomination forms, O Panneerselvam (OPS) said that the petition should be dismissed.

The ECI had refused to accept EPS' signature as sufficient for nominating the party's candidate for the bypoll.

According to the party's rules, the nomination forms are to be signed jointly by OPS and EPS in their capacity as Coordinator and Joint Coordinator respectively.

The argument of the EPS faction is that OPS has been expelled from the party and now EPS is the only leader. It says that the positions of Coordinator and Joint Coordinator have been abolished.

The OPS faction however, argued that the petition should be dismissed because the Supreme Court is yet to give its judgement regarding the validity of the general council meeting held in July 2022, during which OPS and his supporters were expelled from the party.

The ECI is expected to file its response regarding the 'two-leaves' symbol soon.

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