Freeze ‘mango’ symbol, urges PMK founder Ramadoss before Madras High Court

Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss has approached the Madras High Court seeking a direction to Election Commission of India (ECI) and Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) in Tamil Nadu to freeze the ‘mango’ symbol until the resolution of a factional dispute between him and his son R. Anbumani.

The petitioner has also sought an interim direction to the ECI to not notify the Legislative Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry till the disposal of his writ petition. The case is expected to be listed for hearing before Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan next week.

In his affidavit, Dr. Ramadoss said, PMK was a registered but unrecognised political party and therefore, the ECI was not empowered to decide upon the rival claims to the post of president and other office-bearers which could be solved only through a decree to be passed by a competent civil court. He said, his son Dr. Anbumani was elected as a president of the party only for a period of three years between May 28, 2022 and May 28, 2025. After the conclusion of the tenure, the founder himself had been elected as the president of the party and had been functioning so, the petitioner claimed.

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Dr. Ramadoss accused his son of having submitted forged documents before the ECI to claim as if his three-year tenure was between June 2023 and June 2026 and said that the commission had been “misled” to believe his son’s version and continue to send all official communications to Dr. Anbumani. The party founder also told the Madras High Court that a case regarding the factional dispute was heard by the Delhi High Court too in December 2025. Then, the ECI had told the court that it would freeze the ‘mango’ symbol if the two factions do not resolve the disputes between them at the earliest.

However, till date, the ECI had neither frozen the symbol nor sent any communication to the writ petitioner confirming the allotment of the symbol to the PMK. On the other hand, a communication had been sent to Dr. Anbumani on July 30, 2025 stating that the symbol had been alloted to PMK.

Claiming that Dr. Anbumani was not the president of the party on the day when the communication was addressed to him, Dr. Ramadoss said, he had already filed another writ petition in the Madras High Court for quashing that communication and that it was still pending adjudication.

In his present plea, the party founder insisted on issuing a direction to the ECI to freeze the ‘mango ‘ symbol by considering a representation made by him to the commission on February 5, 2026 and said that a civil suit was also already pending with respect to the internal disputes in the party.