Chennai: The AIADMK general council, which met in Chennai on Thursday hours after a Division Bench of the Madras High Court restrained it from migrating to a unitary leadership, turned out to be a chaotic affair and a platform for a massive show of strength by former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, isolating the party coordinator O Panneerselvam within the organisation. However, no meaningful business was carried out and it was announced the general council will meet again on July 11 to discuss about the demand for a single leadership in the party.
The Division Bench, which past midnight heard an appeal from the Panneerselvam faction against a single judge’s order allowing the general council meeting, at the crack of dawn restrained the AIADMK from adopting any resolution other than the 23 on the agenda. This virtually put spokes in the aspirations of the rival camp to see Palaniswami emerge as the sole leader of the party as opposed to its current dual leadership structure where he and Panneerselvam share equal powers, though the latter does not enjoy majority support in the party.
While the inconclusive general council meeting and the court order ensured the status quo continued in the party structure, two things became very clear on Thursday. One, Panneerselvam, who was twice appointed Chief Minister by J Jayalalithaa and took on the reins of Government for a third time after her death in 2016, was hopelessly lost in the party without support. This was apparent at the manner in which he was booed and asked to “go back” from the general council. Two, Palaniswami, who succeeded Panneerselvam as Chief Minister with Sasikala’s support and later abandoned her, is impatient to ascend the throne. He does not mind humiliating Panneerselvam, who at one point helped him continue as Chief Minister by merging his outfit.
That the two leaders, who had promised to function as the AIADMK’s double-barrel gun and even got jointly elected to the posts of coordinator and co-coordinator just last December, have drifted apart beyond rapprochement was amply clear. While Palaniswami arrived at the venue of the meeting to a rousing reception, Panneerselvam was screamed at.
While Panneerselvam sat patiently, Palaniswami’s supporters K P Munusamy and C Ve Shanmugam declared that all 23 resolutions on the agenda stood “rejected” (without any discussion) by the general council. These resolutions were the ones approved by Panneerselvam in his capacity as party coordinator.
Instead, Shanmugam announced that he was submitting a memorandum, signed by 2,190 members of the general council, to newly elected presidium chairman Tamilmagan Hussain seeking another meeting to discuss about unitary leadership. He said the party had suffered enough due to the dual leadership and needs a unitary leadership to function effectively.
Following this, Hussain announced that the general council would meet at the same venue on July 11 to discuss among other things the demand for a unitary leadership.
It was apparent that all those who spoke saw only Palaniswami in the role of the unitary leader.
Panneerselvam and his few supporters walked out calling the decisions of the meeting “illegal” and “invalid”.
