O Panneerselvam, Edappadi K Palaniswami to be elected unopposed as AIADMK leaders

For the first time since late chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) will have an elected leadership at the helm with O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami set to be elected as coordinator and joint coordinator of the party.

As the filing of nomination papers for the dual post of coordinator and joint coordinator ended at 3 pm on Saturday, Election Commissioners C Ponnaiyan and Pollachi V Jayaraman announced that only Panneerselvam and Palaniswami have expressed their interest to contest for the posts by filing nomination papers.

The nomination papers will be taken up for scrutiny on Sunday and the announcement of the duo’s unanimous election is likely to be announced the same day. The election is aimed at keeping ousted general secretary V K Sasikala, who has vowed to take over the AIADMK, at bay.

Also Read | Wary of Sasikala, AIADMK goes for internal polls

Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, who were at loggerheads, buried their hatchet on December 1 by getting an amendment passed in the powerful Executive Committee that allowed the election of coordinator and joint coordinator by primary members of the AIADMK through “single vote” system.

The conduct of internal elections and OPS-EPS duo sending a “message of unity” is due to growing realization, according to political observers, within the party that the “dual leadership” was the only solution to stave off any threat from Sasikala.

The decision to hold the internal polls immediately after amending the by-laws is a serious setback to Sasikala’s efforts to take over the AIADMK leadership. According to the AIADMK, Sasikala is not even a primary member of the party after she failed to renew her membership in 2017 after the by-laws were amended to accommodate Panneerselvam as coordinator and Palaniswami as joint coordinator.

This is the first time that the AIADMK is conducting organizational polls since Jayalalithaa’s passing away in 2016 – the General Council in 2016 had used its powers to appoint V K Sasikala as the interim general secretary. However, the same General Council nullified Sasikala’s appointment a year later and introduced the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator by appointing Jayalalithaa as the “permanent general secretary.”

Sasikala has vowed to “reclaim” the AIADMK from the current leadership –Panneerselvam and Palaniswami – following the party’s defeat in the April 6 assembly elections. However, the close friend of late Jayalalithaa is yet to make any headway in her efforts to take over the AIADMK leadership with no visible swell in her support base.

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