Chennai: The ongoing leadership tussle in the main Opposition
AIADMK in Tamil Nadu further intensified with its Interim General Secretary
(GS) and former CM Edappadi K.Palaniswami filing his nomination for the
post of full time GS and is bete noire and ousted leader O.Panneerselvam
moving the Madras High Court against it.
Mr Palaniswami, armed with the July last year General Council electing
him as the Interim GS and the Supreme Court ratifying the decision taken
in that meeting, had last night announced that elections for the post of
General Secretary would be held on March 26 and the filing of nominations
will commence from today.
Wasting no time, Mr Palaniswami, accompanied by a large number of his
supporters, visited the AIADMK headquarters office today and filed the
nomination papers, which was proposed and seconded by ten district
secretaries of the party.
Earlier, Mr Palaniswami was accorded a rousing reception by a large
number of party cadres, who showered flower petals in his car all along
his route.
After garlanding the statues of MGR and Ms Jayalalaithaa at the party
office, he filed his nomination papers for the post of full time GS before
the Election Officers.
Party sources said, no other candidate is likely to contest for the post
and Mr Palaniswami will be elected unopposed and will become the full
time GS reverting back to the unitary leadership days of Party Founder
and late CMs MGR and J.Jayalalithaa as per the wishes of the majority
of the party cadres.
Minutes after Mr Palaniswami filed his papers, Mr Panneerselvam termed
the election as a “sham” and moved the Madras High Court challenging
the March 26 polls.
The petition is expected to be listed before Justice Kumaresh Babu for
urgent hearing tomorrow as the filing of nomination for the elections will
end at 3.00 PM on Sunday.
The plea for urgent hearing was made to pre-empt Mr Palaniswami from
being declared elected unopposed as “General Secretary”.
It may be noted that the AIADMK was entangled in the leadership tussle
between Coordinator Mr Panneerselvam and Co-Coordinator Palaniswami
since June last year.
While the supporters of Mr Palaniswami favoured him as the GS to lead the
party, Mr Panneerselvam has been insisting that the dual leadership should
continue.
However, the AIADMK in its July 2022 GC meet elected Mr Palaniswami as
the Interim GS, while expelling Mr Panneerselvam–after he skipped the GC
meet, barged into the party office by breaking open the locks resulting in
violent clashes between the supporters of the two factions–on the ground
that the posts of Coordinator and Co-Coordinator ceased to exist as the
decision taken at the December 2021 executive meet electing them by a
single vote was not ratified in the June 23 GC meeting (which was declared
invalid by the High Court), where the announcement to convene another GC
meet on July 11, 2022 was made.
Subsequently, the July 11 GC meet was held, Mr Palaniswami was elected
unanimously as the Interim GS, thus making him the Supreme leader of the
party, and Mr Panneerselvam was expelled from the AIADMK’s primary
membership and stripped off all party posts, along with two other MLAs
supporting him.
After the Supreme Court, in the run up to the February 27 Erode East Assembly bypoll, affirmed the September 2 verdict of the Madras High Court validating the decisions taken at the July 11 GC, the AIADMK has called for elections for the GS post and Mr Palaniswami filed his papers today.
