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AIADMK's highest decision-making body passes resolutions for assembly polls
At the meeting, party deputy coordinator KP Munusamy said that the polls were a direct contest between the AIADMK and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and that national parties don't matter in the state.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s general council, the party’s highest decision-making body, on Saturday passed 16 resolutions. One of the resolutions called for the Centre to not allow dissolving of the provincial councils in Sri Lanka which ensure devolution of powers to Lankan Tamils.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, an outcome of the Indo-Lanka Accord of July 1987 between former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and then Lankan president JR Jayawardene during the civil war, provides for devolution of powers to the island nation’s minority Tamil community by creating provincial councils. This issue resurfaced after the Rajapaksas came to power in 2019, bringing a Sinhalese-Buddhist nationalism to the fore. Last week, external affairs minister S Jaishankar, who was in Colombo, pressed for the legislation to be implemented fully.
Amongst its other resolutions, the AIADMK also formalised that chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami will be the incumbent candidate for the upcoming assembly elections in Tamil Nadu due in April or May. The party has empowered Palaniswami (AIADMK’s co-coordinator) and deputy chief minister and coordinator O Paneerselvam to decide on the electoral alliances and seat-sharing. The party thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for including Tamil Nadu among the six states under the central lighthouse project.
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At the meeting, party deputy coordinator KP Munusamy said that the polls were a direct contest between the AIADMK and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and that national parties don't matter in the state. The AIADMK has been in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will announce the chief minister candidate, much likely during party president JP Nadda’s visit to the state on January 14.
In a veiled reference to the party's former interim general secretary VK Sasikala who will be released later this month from Bengaluru prison, Munusamy said it will not impact the party.
More than 4,500 members were invited to the party meeting today which was held in Chennai’s suburbs. Participants had to submit a Covid-19 negative certificate to attend the meeting.
