Tamil Nadu’s new chief minister-elect Edappadi Palanisamy and 11 other AIADMK ministers met with Governor Vidyasagar Rao to submit a letter of support and request the governor to invite Palanisamy to form the government. Palanisamy, along with AIADMK seniors K.A.Sengottaiyan, ministers Dindigul Srinivasan, P.Thangamani, S.P.Velumani, D.Jayakumar, Pollachi V.Jeyaraman, K.P.Anbazhagan, V.Saroja, V.M.Rajalakshmi, Sasikala’s nephew T.T.V.Dhinakaran and N.Thalavai Sundaram accompanied Palanisamy to the Raj Bhavan this evening.
After the apex court convicted Sasikala in a graft case on Tuesday, the AIADMK legislators elected Palanisamy as their new legislature leader. He is the fourth chief minister-elect in the AIADMK camp after it came to power in May 2016. Jayalalithaa was directly elected by the people. After her passing away, O.Panneerselvam was elected, subsequently V.K.Sasikala and now Palanisamy. "All MLAs have elected me as the legislature party leader. I am meeting the governor now with the support letter," said Palanisamy.
Edappadi Palanisamy, 62, hails from Siluvampalayam, a small village near Edappadi in salem district. Palanisamy is known for his loyalty to both Jayalalithaa and Sasikala, unlike Panneerselvam. He supported Jayalalithaa when the party split after the death of MGR in 1987.
Though he had won as an MLA during 1989, 1991 and 2011, he maintained low profile till 2011. Having been elected to the state assembly four times — known among his supporters as ‘Edappadi’ — Palanisamy is a powerful politicians from the Kongu (West Tamil Nadu) belt and more popular among the Gounder community representatives in the region.
He was ranked number three in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet from 2011-2016, after only Panneerselvam and Natham Viswanathan. He was the PWD minister then. He was among Jayalalithaa’s coterie — a messenger between her and the party and vice versa — a member of Nalvar Ani (the four member team).
Edappadi was one of the prominent faces in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet and his name also was doing the rounds for the CM’s chair in 2016 when Jayalalithaa was admitted to the hospital and subsequently when she died on December 5. He had contested at least eight elections of which he won five. He lost the 1996 assembly polls, 1999 and 2004 Parliament elections. Palanisamy is presently the state highways minister.
