PMK founder S. Ramadoss and his son Anbumani Ramadoss. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss has filed a writ petition in the Madras High Court urging it to quash a communication sent by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on July 30, 2025, regarding the allotment of ‘mango’ symbol, to his son Anbumani Ramadoss’ address in Chennai.
The petition has been listed for hearing before Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G. Arul Murugan on February 2, 2026. It has urged the court to quash the July 30 communication and direct the ECI to issue a fresh communication to the party founder’s address in Chennai.
The writ petition has, in fact, been filed in the name of PMK and states the party was being represented by its founder-cum-president Mr. Ramadoss. Filing an affidavit in support of it, the founder stated his son’s three tenure as party president ended on May 28, 2025 itself.
The petitioner accused his son of having played a fraud on the ECI by submitting forged documents to claim as if he continued to be the party president. The petitioner said his son could not make such claims on the basis of illegal party meetings conducted without the authorisation of the founder.
Claiming he was the incumbent president of the party, the petitioner said, the ECI had taken a decision on July 31, 2025 to allot the ‘mango’ symbol to PMK in the Legislative Assembly elections held in Bihar last year and also for the Assembly elections due in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry this year.
However, that communication had been wrongly sent to Mr. Anbumani’s Tilak Street address at T. Nagar in Chennai though it ought to have been actually sent to the party founder and incumbent president’s address at Nattu Muthu Naiken Street in T. Nagar, the petitioner claimed.
The petitioner also said, the Delhi High Court had recently dealt with a case regarding the factional dispute in the party between himself and his son. During the hearing of the case on December 14, 2025; the ECI counsel had submitted that the commission would freeze the ‘mango’ symbol during the 2026 elections.
“As such, till date the Election Commission of India has not sent fresh communication to the present president Dr. S. Ramadoss to his office address or did not choose to freeze the symbol ‘mango’ as the dispute is made by a rival claim by former president who has been removed from the membership of the party on September 11, 2025,” the affidavit read.
Published – January 30, 2026 09:40 pm IST
