Breaking his silence on the friction with senior colleague O. Panneerselvam since the leadership tussle broke out in the AIADMK, former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday accused him of having taken all steps to make the party “inoperative”. He said the posts of coordinator and co-coordinator, created five years ago, no longer existed.
Mr. Palaniswami rejected Mr. Panneerselvam’s request to forward the ‘A’ and ‘B’ forms for fielding party candidates in the local body by-elections on the ‘two leaves’ symbol.
“By filing a complaint with the Avadi Police Commissioner against the party’s general council meeting, which both of us convened, and by moving the courts, you took all steps to force the AIADMK into an inoperative mode. Sending this letter to me now is not acceptable,” Mr. Palaniswami said in response to Mr. Panneerselvam’s letter of June 29.
Since the general council meeting on June 23 did not ratify the amendments made to the party by-law (for electing the coordinator and the co-coordinator by a single vote) by the executive council meeting on December 1, 2021, they stood nullified, Mr. Palaniswami contended. “Hence, the letter written by you, assuming to be the party coordinator, has no validity,” he said.
Mr. Palaniswami, who chose to identify himself as the AIADMK headquarters secretary (a post he held), addressed Mr. Panneerselvam as the party treasurer and respectfully called him the “beloved elder brother”.
When the deadline for candidates to file nominations for the local body byelections ended on June 27, Mr. Panneerselvam waited for these many days and could not officially announce the candidates, Mr. Palaniswami pointed out. After he boycotted a meeting of the headquarters functionaries on June 27, his letter was not acceptable, Mr. Palaniswami said.
A day after the June 23 general council meeting, where a majority of AIADMK workers booed Mr. Panneerselvam and downplayed his position in the party, former Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam had first argued that Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami ceased to be the coordinator and the co-coordinator, but would continue as the treasurer and the headquarters secretary respectively.
A. Tamilmagan Hussain, who was declared elected as the presidium chairman, has called a general council meeting for July 11. While Mr. Panneerselvam and his supporters have moved the Election Commission of India as well as the courts to ascertain his position in the party, Mr. Palaniswami and his supporters have been defending their actions.
