History repeats itself: When AIADMK fought with a 'cock' and 'two pigeons'

Vicky Nanjappa takes us back to 1998, when a similar war had cropped up between former chief minister J Jayalalithaa and MGR's widow Janaki.

History repeated for the AIADMK on Wednesday when the Election Commission froze the party's symbol while hearing a case between the Sasikala and O Panneerselvam camp. The EC observed that it was freezing the symbol as it was unable to finish reading the 20,000 pages of argument between the two sides staking a claim for the two leaves.

[Read: Election Commission's order on AIADMK symbol row]

Rewind to 1988: A similar issue had cropped up and the war was between Jayalalithaa and M G Ramachandran's wife Janaki. MGR's widow was in a direct fight with Jayalalithaa who was then the propaganda secretary of the AIADMK.

The battle before the Election Commission went on for nine months. Elections were due in 1989 and the EC decided to freeze the symbol. The Jayalalithaa faction got the 'cock' symbol while Janaki fought the polls with a 'pair of pigeons.'

The fight between the two factions began in 1988 after the Tamil Nadu assembly was dissolved. The police sealed the AIADMK headquarters on Lloyds Road in Chennai. In March Jayalalithaa staked a claim for the symbol.

Before the EC, the Janaki faction claimed that it had a majority of the support in the party. Jayalalithaa countered the claim by saying that these just attendance registers and not original membership registers.

The EC then headed by R V S Peri Sastry passed an interim order freezing the symbol. The elections that followed saw Jayalalithaa winning 27 seats. Janaki's faction however managed just one seat. By February 1989, the two factions buried their differences and merged with each other. The EC then restored the two leaves to the AIADMK. Following this order elections were held at Madurai East and Marungapuri which the AIADMK won comfortably.

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