Ex-AIADMK minister boycotts event to felicitate Palaniswami

Sengottaiyan said photos of former Tamil Nadu CM and AIADMK founder MGR and his successor J Jayalalithaa were missing in the hoardings at the event

Fissures within Tamil Nadu’s main opposition party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), came to the fore on Monday, the day when the party opened its first office in Delhi.

KA Sengottaiyan

In what is being seen as a revolt in the AIADMK, former minister and senior leader KA Sengottaiyan boycotted a farmers’ event held to felicitate party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) on Sunday. Sengottaiyan said that it was because the photos of former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran (MGR) and his successor J Jayalalithaa were missing in the hoardings put up at the event.

“MGR and Jayalalithaa gave life to me. I learned about the absence of their pictures. So, I did not attend the event,” Sengottaiyan, a former education minister in the EPS’ cabinet, said. He added that he had informed the organisers about the leaders’ missing photos but his concern was not addressed. He also pointed out that Jayalalithaa had sanctioned ₹3.72 crore in 2011 for the scheme being presented at the event in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district.

However, the AIADMK has played down Sengottaiyan’s absence. AIADMK organising secretary D Jayakumar on Monday said that the event was apolitical and organised by farmers to thank EPS for executing the Avinashi Athikadavu project. “Organisers avoided pictures of AIADMK leaders as there were farmers from all parties. It was an apolitical event,” Jayakumar told reporters on Monday.

Following Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, Sengottaiyan was also tipped to become the AIADMK head and chief ministerial candidate although it has never been acknowledged by the party publicly. But Jayalalithaa’s confidante VK Sasikala, who took over the reins of the party briefly before serving a four-year jail term in Bengaluru in the disproportionate assets case, appointed EPS as the successor of the party as well as the then AIADMK government.

Meanwhile, EPS virtually inaugurated an office in Delhi named, “Puratchi Thalaivar MGR-Puratchi Thalaivi Amma Maaligai” after MGR and Jayalalithaa.