The power struggle within the AIADMK that began right after the death of J Jayalalithaa on December 5, 2016, seems to have come to an end, at least for now, after over five-and-a-half years with the election of Edappadi K Palaniswami as the interim general secretary of the party. Soon after his appointment, the party expelled O Panneerselvam from the primary membership of AIADMK.
Here is a chronology of major events since 2016.
December 5, 2016: J Jayalalithaa passes away after a 75-day hospitalization
December 29, 2016: AIADMK General Council elects V K Sasikala, long-time aide of Jayalalithaa, as the interim general secretary
February 5, 2017: AIADMK Legislature Party decides to replace V K Sasikala as its leader in place of O Panneerselvam, who submits his resignation as Chief Minister
February 7, 2017: OPS raises a banner of revolt against Sasikala whose bid to become Chief Minister gets stalled
February 14, 2017: Supreme Court convicts Sasikala and three others in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. Sasikala gets Edappadi K Palaniswami elected as the AIADMK Legislative Party leader. Sasikala also appoints her nephew T T V Dhinakaran as deputy general secretary of AIADMK
February 16, 2017: EPS sworn-in as Chief Minister
February 18, 2017: EPS wins the trust vote in the Assembly
April 15, 2017: Ministers in the EPS government raise a banner of revolt against Dhinakaran; ask him to withdraw from party affairs
August 21, 2017: OPS and EPS factions come together at the behest of BJP; OPS joins EPS’s cabinet as deputy chief minister; they arrive at a compromise formula to jointly run the AIADMK as coordinator (OPS) and joint coordinator (EPS); 18 MLAs owing allegiance to Dhinakaran turn rebels
September 18, 2017: Speaker P Dhanapal disqualifies the 18 MLAs
April 27, 2018: Madras High court upholds the disqualification of 18 MLAs
May 23, 2019: AIADMK wins 9 out of 21 seats that went to by-polls; party’s strength in the assembly increases
September 18, 2020: Sparks fly at the high-level committee meeting where OPS pushes for the constitution of a 11-member Steering Committee. EPS objects and meeting resolves to convene Executive Committee on September 28
September 28, 2020: Open fight between EPS and OPS. OPS insists on the Steering Committee, while EPS’ supporters push for the announcement of the CM nominee. Deputy coordinator K P Munusamy announces the CM candidate will be declared on October 7, 2020
October 7, 2020: EPS announced as Chief Ministerial candidate by party coordinator O Panneerselvam
May 2, 2021: AIADMK loses assembly elections
May 10, 2021: EPS gets elected as Opposition Leader despite objections from OPS
December 1, 2021: AIADMK Executive Council amends party Constitution; allows the coordinator and deputy coordinator to be elected by primary members
December 6, 2021: OPS and EPS gets unanimously elected as coordinator and joint coordinator of AIADMK
June 14, 2022: EPS supporters raise the issue of unitary leadership; confusion in AIADMK
June 16, 2022: OPS opposes the unitary leadership model, wants the dual leadership model to continue
June 20, 2022: OPS’ supporter moves Madras High Court seeking a stay on the June 23 General Council
June 22, 2022: A single bench judge refuses to stay the GC; OPS moves a division bench against the order
June 23, 2022: The division bench allows conduct of GC but refuses permission to discuss the unitary leadership issue. GC rejects all resolutions and resolves to conduct another GC on July 11
July 6, 2022: OPS moves Madras High Court seeking a stay on the GC meeting
July 8, 2022: Madras High Court reserves the verdict
July 11, 2022: Madras High Court gives the go ahead for the GC; EPS elected as interim general secretary of AIADMK, OPS expelled from party.
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