That TTV Dinakaran, the AIADMKs deputy general secretary, personally spoke to two former law ministers in the UPA government, Salman Khursheed and M Veerappa Moily, to ask them to plead his partys case for the Two Leaves poll symbol before the Election Commission, is known.

Although both the Congress politicians were well known to him, Chief Election Commissioner Nizam Zaidi went strictly by the rulebook in freezing the partys election symbol and allotting temporary ones to the two rival factions.

In fact, the rival O Pannerselvam camp, which engaged legal expert C S Vaidhyanathan to argue their case, seems to have fared better, since they got to deny the Sasikala factions plea for the Two Leaves symbol.

An unexpected fallout is that the opposition DMK is mighty upset at the two Congress leaders arguing in favour of TTV Dinakaran, since the state unit of the Congress, its ally, is strongly opposed him.

As they say, wheels within wheels.