‘I am co-ordinator’: OPS after poll officer invites him and EPS

The union government had invited EPS as the party’s representative for the G20 meeting in Delhi. And on December 29 the National Law Commission addressed EPS as AIADMK’s general secretary seeking his opinion on conducting assembly and parliamentary elections simultaneously

Chennai:

O Panneerselvam said the AIADMK elected him as coordinator and EPS as joint coordinator, which, he says, continues to exist. (PTI)

Tamil Nadu chief electoral officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo has written a letter to both Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS), inviting them to attend a meeting in Chennai on January 16 on the proposal for use of remote electronic voting machine to help migrants cast their votes.

Other bodies have so far addressed invites only to EPS. Speaking to reporters on Friday on receiving the invite, OPS said that in December 2021, the AIADMK elected him as coordinator and EPS as joint coordinator, which, he says, continues to exist. “From then till now, the Election Commission of India has been addressing us as coordinator and joint coordinator. We have faced urban and local body polls after that,” OPS said.

This comes after an AIADMK general council meeting in July abolished the dual leadership posts where OPS was coordinator and EPS was joint coordinator. Instead, EPS, who enjoys a brute majority, was made AIADMK’s interim general secretary while OPS and his supporters were expelled. OPS has challenged this in the Supreme Court because of which EPS’ faction submitted that they will not elect him as general secretary during the pendency of the case.

OPS’ legal faction told the law commission that EPS is not the elected general secretary of AlADMK as the election for the post is still on hold and has not been conducted by the party yet due to a civil suit pending on this case. “In due course Shri. Edapady K Palaniswamy who was holding the post of Joint Coordinator resigned his post and sent his resignation letter to the election commission. Hence the AIADMK party’s only Co-ordinator is Shri. O Panneerselvam,” the letter read. “Since Shri Edapady K Palanswamy was forming a group and functioning against the party’s rules and regulation and was violating the AIADMK party, law and order action was taken by the only Co-ordinator Shri O Panneerselvam against Shri Edapady K Palaniswamy.”

The Tamil Nadu assembly Speaker, M Appavu, too continued to recognise OPS who was Deputy Leader of Opposition while EPS is the Leader of the Opposition. A few months ago, Appavu did not agree to EPS’ request to remove OPS from the designated front row seat, so EPS had boycotted the session.

EPS’ faction says that their legal wing would discuss further steps on Sahoo’s letter dated December 29. “The union government and the law commission sent the invite to us,” reacted D Jayakumar, a key EPS supporter. “This has not been sent by the Election Commission of India. It is sent by the regional election office so it’s not a big deal. It was probably an action out of the existing system. This doesn’t affect us. The party, flag, and symbol is all under EPS’ leadership.”