JOIN USPanneerselvam skips review meeting called by Edappadi K Palaniswami, holds discussion with supporters
The rift between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his Deputy O Panneerselvam over the Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2021 Assembly polls appeared to have widened on Tuesday.
A day after the AIADMK Executive Committee witnessed heated exchanges, Panneerselvam skipped a review meeting on Covid-19 that Palaniswami held with district collectors at the Secretariat here.
Panneerselvam, who usually attends review meeting along with Palaniswami, did not go to Secretariat on Tuesday. He chose to stay put at his residence. As the review meeting at the Secretariat started, Panneerselvam held discussions with his close aides K P Munuswamy and P H Manoj Pandian.
Later, Rajya Sabha MP and deputy coordinator R Vaithilingam, who is understood to have taken up the task of finding a resolution to differences between Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, joined the meeting at Panneerselvam's residence.
“He (Panneerselvam) did not attend the review meeting. He is at his official residence and is meeting party leaders. They are discussing the happenings at the AIADMK Executive Committee on Monday,” a source close to Panneerselvam told DH.
After a marathon five-hour discussions on Monday, Munuswamy had announced that the Chief Ministerial candidate will be announced by Panneerselvam and Palaniswami jointly on October 7. Sources told DH though a majority of the party’s district secretaries and ministers supported EPS, OPS got the decision postponed yet again on Monday.
The two leaders have been fighting with each other to be the party’s CM candidate and senior leaders have been trying to arrive at a consensus for the past two months but it has been in vain.
Panneerselvam, though sidelined and having lost majority of his supporters, has been trying to assert his authority. And it is significant given that he has opened a line of communication with AIADMK rebel T T V Dhinakaran, nephew of V K Sasikala, to patch up differences.
DH had on September 24 reported that Panneerselvam, who rebelled against Sasikala in February 2017 before she surrendered to authorities at the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru, had dialled Dhinakaran in a bid to contain Palaniswami.