Former Minister in the M.G. Ramachandran cabinet, Panruti Ramachandran, on Sunday said it was not important who the AIADMK [interim] general secretary was, and what mattered was who won the confidence of people. He made the remarks after V.K. Sasikala, former aide of late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, called on him at his residence in Ashok Nagar, Chennai.
Mr. Ramachandran has been maintaining a low profile for some time now. “It is not important who the general secretary is. What matters is, who are the people placing their confidence in,” he said. Asked about the controversy over unitary and dual leadership in the AIADMK, he rejected them and asked: “What have they achieved from the unitary leadership anyway?”
He was dismissive of the recent election of former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the interim general secretary of the party by its general council. “All these interim are temporary, not permanent”.
He pointed out that the party founder MGR was not the general secretary [throughout] during his time. “Raghavanandham, Pavoor Shanmugam, Navalar [V.R. Nedunchezhian] were the general secretaries,” he said. When pointed out that the majority of the AIADMK general council members supported Mr. Palaniswami’s leadership, he said, “It is like I appoint you and you appoint me. Were these functionaries properly elected? No. All these are mere appointments.”
To a query on more than 2,300 of the 2,400 AIADMK general council members endorsing Mr. Palaniswami, he replied: “It was the general council members, who evicted Puratchi Thalaivar MGR. I was there then. What happened?”
The AIADMK was a political party for the poor and the downtrodden. Anyone could join the party, he said. “As of today, I don’t know whether the incumbent functionaries are aware of the basic foundations of the party.” To a query on calls from certain sections for Ms. Sasikala and deposed AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam to come together, he said: “I don’t want to speak anything on that. There are many confusions already.”
He also rejected the claim that the AIADMK had 1.5 crore workers and termed it a “myth”. The party should not “cheat itself.” He appealed to the party workers to remain patient, as the AIADMK was to go through many phases before a clear picture emerged.
Ms. Sasikala said she favoured unity in the party.
