The battle in the AIADMK for control of the party reached a new phase as coordinator and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and his associates walked out of the General Council meeting held on Thursday at Chennai.
Though Paneerselvam wanted to move 23 resolutions as part of his bid to take over the party, Edappadi Palaniswamy, the co-cordinator supported by more than 69 party district secretaries out of 75, succeeded in ensuring the move. “Let us appoint Edappadi Palaniswami as the general secretary and then we will see whether to move the 23 resolutions,” said C V Shanmugham, MP and former Law Minister in the Edappadi Palaniswami Cabinet.
The general body meeting saw many former supporters of Panneerselvam jumping fences and joining hands with Palaniswamy. The Panneerselvam faction tried its best to get the general body meeting stayed but the Madras High Court which heard the plea by faction for staying the Thursday meeting refused to grant any stay to the meeting but restrained the leadership from going ahead with the move to elevate Palaniswamy as the general secretary of the party.
Since the demise of Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016, the AIADMK was disintegrating slowly. Earlier, Sasikala, the live-in aid to the former tried to take control of the party but without any luck. The Madras High Court in a late evening hearing on Wednesday refused to stay the general council meeting convened for Thursday but asked the Palaniswamy faction not to tamper with the existing dual-leadership of the party.
Thursday’s meeting saw the entire general council meeting condemning and shouting down the resolutions introduced by Panneerselvam. In a sudden turn of events, K P Munusamy, a hitherto trusted aide of Panneerselvam made a turn around and declared that the party should follow the single leadership pattern which was in vogue since the AIADMK was launched by party founder M G Ramachandran.
The General Council of the party would be held on July 11 and that meeting would decide the fate of Panneerselvam. If the kind of reception accorded to Palaniswami on Thursday is any indication, stage is set for his coronation as the general Secretary. “Panneerselvam has nowhere to go now. His son P Raveendranath’s meetings with Chief Minister M K Stalin have not been accepted by the AIADMK members. Moreover he is seen as a Sasikala acolyte,” said Kolahala Srenivasan, a political observer based in Chennai.
Besides Munusamy, Dr V Mythreyan, another camp follower of Panneerselvam too switched over to Palaniswami faction leaving Panneerselvam gasping. “It is certain that Palaniswamy would be the unitary leader the party is waiting for,” said Doraisamy Raveendran.