Dual leadership has ceased to exist in AIADMK: EPS camp

The dual leadership in the AIADMK has now “ceased to exist” due to “non-tabling” of a resolution before the General Council on Thursday seeking approval for the December 2021 election of O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami as coordinator and joint coordinator, the faction led by latter claimed on Friday.

However, the Panneerselvam camp, which is a minority in all party forums, scotched at the claim by the rival faction seeking to know how General Council members can hold their posts when the “dual leadership” itself doesn’t exist anymore. J C D Prabhakar, a former MLA, claimed while party functionaries have sided with EPS, the cadres are “firmly behind OPS.”

The Palaniswami faction, which used its brute majority among the GC members to reject all resolutions at Thursday’s meeting, asserted that the next General Council meeting will be held on July 11 as announced by presidium chairman Tamilmagan Hussain, whose appointment was ratified on Thursday.

It said the presidium chairman has powers to convene the GC as a new leadership is yet to be elected and one-fifth of the GC members have sought for such a meeting.

AIADMK’s Executive Council had on December 1 approved an amendment to the party’s Constitution that allowed primary members, instead of the General Council, to elect the coordinator and joint coordinator. As per the amendment, OPS and EPS were elected unanimously as coordinator and joint coordinator through a single-vote system.

“That resolution seeking approval for the election of coordinator and joint coordinator was not tabled at the General Council. They (OPS camp) forgot. Even if it was tabled we would have rejected it. Since the resolution was not tabled, the dual leadership has ceased to exist since Thursday,” former law minister and Rajya Sabha MP C Ve Shanmugam said.

Flanked by senior leaders from EPS camp, Shanmugam said only the two posts have ceased to exist and functionaries chosen through elections will continue to remain as there was no amendment regarding the way they are elected. “Since the dual leadership has ceased to exist, as on today, Panneerselvam is the treasurer of the party, and Palaniswami is the headquarters secretary,” Shanmugam said.

The statement by Shanmugam makes it clear that the EPS faction is in no mood for any reconciliation with the OPS camp and was on the course to move a resolution on July 11 in favour of the unitary leadership. Palaniswami is likely to be elected as the general secretary of the party.

R Vaithilingam, representing the OPS camp, refuted reports that they had moved the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the convening of the GC on July 11 without the coordinator’s permission. Prabhakar also came down heavily on the way “EPS supporters” treated OPS at the GC meeting and humiliated him.

Meanwhile, the party's ousted interim general secretary V K Sasikala said she will kick-start her revolutionary tour to defend the “rights of Tamil soil and dignity of women” from June 26.

OPS, who stood for Jayalalithaa twice when she had to resign as chief minister due to corruption cases, lost his clout within the party after the 2017 Marina Rebellion against Sasikala even as EPS consolidated his position within the party by completing his tenure and leading the AIADMK to the best-ever performance in a losing election.

The EPS faction believes his being at the top will help the party “counter” the ruling DMK in an “efficient way” and also challenge the BJP which is projecting itself as the principal Opposition party. It was EPS’ aides who broached the “unitary leadership” at a meeting on June 14 which was convened to discuss the general council meeting.

EPS, hand-picked by Sasikala as Chief Minister in 2017 before she went to serve her four-year term in a disproportionate assets (DA) case, had stonewalled BJP's proposal to induct Sasikala into the party before the 2021 assembly polls, maintaining that the “core vote bank” of the AIADMK stays with the party and not the splinter group.