Clamour in AIADMK to make Palaniswami the CM candidate for 2021 elections

As AIADMK prepares itself for the most-crucial assembly elections in recent years scheduled to be held in the first half of 2021, there is a clamour in the ruling party to announce incumbent Edappadi K Palaniswami as the Chief Ministerial candidate.

The demand to announce that Palaniswami will continue to lead the government if the AIADMK were to gain power for a third consecutive term has also exposed chinks within the party. Not everyone is happy with the proposal as announcing Palaniswami as the Chief Ministerial face would lead to further sidelining of his deputy O Panneerselvam, who happens to be the coordinator of the party.

Four ministers of the Palaniswami cabinet have come out in the open to air their views on the contentious issue of Chief Ministerial candidate, though three of them directly or indirectly favoured continuation of the current arrangement – Palaniswami as CM and Panneerselvam as coordinator of the party.

Revenue Minister R B Udhaya Kumar, Tamil Development Minister ‘MaFoi’ K Pandiarajan, and Dairy Development Minister K T Rajenthra Bhalaji have come out in support of the continuation of the current arrangement, while Cooperation Minister Sellur K Raju wanted the MLAs to elect their leader after elections.

Sources in the party told DH that many office-bearers believe projecting Palaniswami as the face of the AIADMK was imperative to take on the now resurgent DMK.

“We cannot go into the assembly polls leaderless. We need to have a face because our opponent DMK has a Chief Ministerial candidate in M K Stalin. In such a scenario, we cannot say we will decide the leader after elections. And to announce the incumbent Chief Minister as the face will be the right decision,” a senior AIADMK leader said.

As the ministers’ statement embarrassed the party, the AIADMK on Thursday announced that the party leadership will decide about the timing of announcing the Chief Ministerial candidate, giving an indication to party workers not to talk about it for now.

As the Ministers’ statement embarrassed the party, Panneerselvam took to Twitter on Thursday to appeal to party men to maintain discipline and work towards the “goal of establishing party government for a third consecutive term.”

Three ministers favouring Palaniswami is a setback for Panneerselvam, who stood for Jayalalithaa twice when she had to quit as CM. The Deputy CM has lost much of his bargaining power and ground in the party and the government after his rebellion against Sasikala that saw Palaniswami occupy the Chief Minister’s chair.

“Edappadi is our Chief Minister forever. Let us fix the goal and face the ground (polls). Let us prepare the ground by projecting Edappadi K Palaniswami and win the elections. 2021 is ours,” Bhalaji, known for his penchant for controversies, said.

This is the first time in the AIADMK’s history that the party is in a bind on whether to announce its Chief Ministerial face. When it was led by the legendary M G Ramachandran and later by the charismatic Jayalalithaa, there arose no need to make any such announcement as people largely voted based on personalities.