Edappadi K Palaniswami is AIADMK’s chief minister face for 2021 elections

Tamil Nadu’s ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagm (AIADMK) on Wednesday said it would project Edappadi K Palaniswami as its chief ministerial face in the assembly elections due in the first quarter of 2021.

Tamil Nadu’s ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagm (AIADMK) on Wednesday said it would project Edappadi K Palaniswami as its chief ministerial face in the assembly elections due in the first quarter of 2021.

Edappadi K Palaniswami (File photo)

The announcement was made by deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, who is also the joint coordinator of the party, at AIADMK’s headquarters in Chennai.

AIADMK  also announced the setting up of a 11-member steering committee to guide the party as a part of a deal between factions owing allegiance to the CM and deputy CM.

The announcement that Palaniswami, popularly known as EPS, will be the chief ministerial face of the AIADMK in the next polls and the formation of the steering committee signalled a truce between the two top leaders, who were rivals at one time.

Panneerselvam, or OPS, has been chief minister thrice in the past - twice when former AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa had to step down from the post and once after she died in December 2016. He had wanted to be projected as the CM face in the next polls, but EPS, a former loyalist of Jayalalithaa’s confidante Sasikala Natarajan and who had established firm control over the party since she was sentenced to four years in prison in 2017 for amassing wealth disproportionate to her sources of income, and made sure he won the race.

Former MP’s Manoj Pandian, R Gopalkrishnan, Sholavandan MLA K Manickam and former MLAs P Mohan and JCD Prabhakar are the five OPS loyalists who are on the steering committee. The term of the assembly expires in May 2021.