The fate of O Panneerselvam, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, who reached New Delhi on Sunday with a list of demands to be submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, has become uncertain.
Even as he boarded the flight to New Delhi, Ministers of his Government, AIADMK legislators and district secretaries have come out with resolutions demanding the elevation of Sasikala Natarajan, the long-time close aide of late J Jayalalithaa, as the party general secretary as well as the Chief Minister of the State.
The demands were made by the Ministers even as Panneerselvam was presiding over a meeting of senior officials to prepare the charter of demands to be submitted to Modi. The demands include honouring late Jayalalithaa with Bharat Ratna and installation of her bronze statue in the central hall of the Parliament.
RB Udhayakumar, Revenue Minister and K Pandiarajan, Minister for School Education, demanded that Chinamma take over not only the post of the AIADMK general secretary but also the chief ministership of the State.
Interestingly, there are reports from the districts of Dharmapuri and Karur that Deepa Jayakumar, the niece of late Jayalalithaa should be anointed as the general secretary of the party.
On Sunday, Udhayakumar led a procession of district secretaries of the Jayalalithaa Peravai (one of the high power wings of the AIADMK) to Marina Beach, offered floral tributes at the spot where the late Chief Minister has been interred and passed a resolution demanding Chinamma take over both the posts.
“We want Chinamma to contest the bypoll to be held from the RK Nagar Assembly constituency (from where Jayalalithaa had been elected in the May 2016 election) and become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,” he told reporters. According to Udhayakumar, all district secretaries of Jayalalithaa Peravai were present while the resolution was adopted unanimously.
This was followed by a team led by Pandiarajan visiting the Jayalalithaa Memorial to offer floral tributes and demand the elevation of Chinamma as the next Chief Minister.
E Madhusoodanan, Presidium Chairman of the AIADMK too has demanded that Chinamma should become the Chief Minister. He had called on Sasikala and had pleaded with her to save the AIADMK by taking over the post of general secretary.
CR Saraswathi, the spokesperson of the AIADMK, told The Pioneer that there was nothing unusual in the demands by the party’s senior leadership. “This is the unanimous feeling of the party cadre. Chinamma, who stood by Amma (as Jayalalithaa is addressed by AIADMK cadre) for more than three decades, is the right choice for both the posts,” she said.