After repeatedly insisting that it would not interfere in the internal affairs of the AIADMK, the BJP on Friday made an attempt to broker peace between warring leaders Edapaddi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, both former chief ministers of Tamil Nadu.
๐๐๐๐ฒ๐บ๐ฝ๐ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐ผ ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐ฎ๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ฟ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐๐ฝ๐ผ๐น๐น
The attempt to bring together the factions was initiated ahead of the February 27 bypoll in the Erode East Assembly constituency and came on a day the Supreme Court asked the AIADMK general council to decide by vote who its candidate for the bypoll would be.
โThis is a workable solution in the interest of the political party. It will allow the participation of the partyโs candidate in the process of democracy,โ the court had said, while dealing with petitions seeking the allocation of the โTwo Leavesโ symbol.
In July 2022, the AIADMK general council had expelled Panneerselvam from the party and opted for Palaniswami as interim general secretary.
๐๐๐ฃ ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ฝ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐น๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฎ'๐ ๐บ๐ฒ๐๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ
On Friday, BJP national general secretary CT Ravi, who is in charge of Tamil Nadu, along with party state president K Annamalai, held separate meetings with Palaniswami and Panneerselvam conveying to them that BJP national president JP Nadda wanted them to unite to take on the DMK. โWe have tried to unite the AIADMK,โ Ravi said.
Ostensibly, the BJP national leadership is keen on a united AIADMK as it would want to bag a few seats from Tamil Nadu in next yearโs Lok Sabha polls.
โOver the past few months, the BJP had been creating an impression that it was emerging as a strong opposition in Tamil Nadu and would be capable of taking on the DMK independently. However, Fridayโs move to unite the AIADMK shows the party is not confident about going it alone in the Lok Sabha polls and is banking on a united AIADMK so that the votes do not get fractured, especially when the DMK has a strong alliance,โ political observer Mani said.
Senior AIADMK leaders chose to play down the BJPโs intervention, but the partyโs IT cell leader Singai Ramachandran reacted strongly after Raviโs mediation effort. โWho the hell is CT Ravi to tell us what we should do in our party?โ he asked.
