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OPS, Sasikala hold separate shows of strength amid tussle for AIADMK
The shows of strength come amid the messy changeover from a dual leadership in the party to a single leadership under former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami
Sidelined AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam and ousted leader V K Sasikala on Sunday held separate roadshows in Tamil Nadu, amid the messy changeover from a dual leadership in the party to a single leadership under former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.
Panneerselvam, who returned from a visit the Delhi where he had met NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu, on Friday received a rousing welcome from his loyalists when he landed in Madurai district. Meanwhile Sasikala whose re-entry into the AIADMK has been stonewalled, went on a road show on Sunday in Thiruvallur district to meet her supporters.
After the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2016, Sasikala briefly held the reins of the party as interim general secretary.
After she was convicted in a disproportionate assets case and sent to prison, Panneerselvam and Palaniswami had joined hands to helm the party with the latter’s condition that Sasikala and her nephew, TTV Dhinakaran had to be removed from party positions and they were ousted. Later, Dhinakaran floated the Amma Makkal Munneetra Kazagam with a breakaway faction and supporters of Sasikala.
Meanwhile, Panneerselvam started efforts earlier this month to stall an AIADMK general council meeting where the issue of single-person leadership was to be taken up. Several key leaders of the party have backed Palaniswami for the post.
After the meeting on June 23, the Palaniswami camp asserted publicly that the dual leadership with Panneerselvam as coordinator and the former CM as joint coordinator has ceased to exist.
In Madurai on Friday, Panneerselvam told reporters that supporters of party founder M G Ramachandran (MGR) and his successor Jayalalithaa are on his side. “People and party cadre will teach a fitting lesson to those who are behind the wrongdoing and conspiracy which has led to an extraordinary situation today.”
A huge crowd gathered on his route to his native district Theni.
Meanwhile, Sasikala told reporters in Tiruttani that she had in her younger years witnessed a succession battle after MGR’s death in 1987. “This problem is happening for the second time now after Amma’s (Jayalalithaa) death which can be solved because I have worked for Amma,” she said.
“According to me, the party cadre and people are on my side. All the cadre want to be under my leadership and only if it’s that way, the party will be fine. I am confident I will set this problem right and bring back the AIADMK government,” she said, adding that the AIADMK will come under a single leadership before the 2024 parliamentary elections and that the ruling DMK was their only enemy.
She began her roadshow from her Chennai residence with a theme to protect the rights of Tamil people and defend the dignity of women.
In a late development on Sunday, the AIADMK convened a meeting of office-bearers on Monday at 10am. The statement came from the secretary of the party headquarters. It did not name any leader. Senior leader C V Shanmugam on Friday said that after the June 23 general council meeting, the dual leadership was defunct and Palaniswami and Panneerselvam would retain their positions as the AIAMDK’s headquarters secretary and treasurer.
During the AIADMK’s general council meeting on June 23, members had raised slogans demanding a single leadership under Palaniswami while heckling Panneerselvam.
A late night court order procured by Panneerselvam had maintained that no party bylaw can be amended to bring in a unitary leadership. The party then announced another general council meeting on July 11 to discuss Palaniswami as their next leader.
