Sasikala's nephew and trusted henchman T T V Dinakaran has reportedly personally spoke to Salman Khurshid and Veerappa Moily asking them to plead for the Sasikala faction before the Election Commission, to be able to retain the AIADMK's two leaves poll symbol. The two Congress leaders appear to have been selected largely because they were both former law ministers in the Manmohan Singh government and were well acquainted with Chief Election Commissioner Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi. But Zaidi was unmoved by their arguments and froze the symbol. (Moily, in fact, left even before the hearing was over). Sasikala's side had to settle for the symbol of a hat. Worse, the DMK leadership is furious that senior members of their alliance partner had taken the case in the first place.