All is not well in the opposition AIADMK. The leadership tussle reached new heights on Monday, with the O. Panneerselvam camp demanding postponement of the general council meeting scheduled to be held on June 23.
“The general council members want the council meeting to be held. There is no change in the meeting,” party’s deputy coordinator K.P. Munusamy said. While OPS has been desperately sending overtures to the EPS camp for the past seven days, the latter remains stubborn and has chosen not to make any compromises with his party colleague. With EPS’s support, a few district units of the party—Tirupattur and Vellore—have adopted resolutions for singular leadership supporting EPS.
Incidentally, EPS had been working towards taking over the party since 2017, say party insiders. According to senior leaders, he began asserting his position immediately after OPS came back into the party. And, this assertion reached a higher level after the 2021 general elections when the party lost power and occupied the opposition benches. Highly placed sources in the party say that EPS has an expert consultation team working for him. The trio—Sunil Kanugolu, the election strategist who recently joined the Congress party, his own son Mithun Kumar and former IGP intelligence Sathyamurthy, popularly known as SMS, are still working for EPS. Sources say that the team has advised him to take over the party for now with the available options, and consolidate his position before the 2026 elections.
It is said that during the general council meeting on June 23, it will be proposed that EPS will be both coordinator and joint coordinator of the party and sideline OPS. Sources also say that OPS might be appointed as the treasurer of the party as of now, and later after a year, even moved out from that position.
As per the present AIADMK bylaw, the coordinator and joint coordinator together have the powers of the party general secretary. Any decision has to be made by both the leaders together and executed together. Incidentally, on December 1, 2021, the party bylaw was amended saying candidates for the two positions will have to be elected by the primary members of the party through a single vote.
Panneerselvam and Palanisami were elected in December last year under this new amendment, and were declared to be authorised signatories for the party in signing the nomination papers of any party candidate. After the election in December last year, it was made apparent that the duo—OPS and EPS—will be the leaders of the party for the next five years. It was also decided that Jayalalithaa will be eternal general secretary of the party.
However, with the debate of unitary leadership vs dual leadership in the party reaching a crescendo, sources say that a resolution is likely to be proposed to make EPS hold both the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator. But, any resolution passed in the general council doesn’t not have the authority to amend or relax the rule governing the mode of election of the coordinator and joint coordinator together. If any proposal to this regard is made, it will only turn into litigation. "The election for the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator cannot be rescinded by the general council now. It can be changed only in the event of the death of anyone of them and then a person could be appointed as an interim arrangement,” says AIADMK deputy coordinator R. Vaithilingam, who is part of the OPS camp. He also says that any move to annul the election held in December last year will be "illegal and will only lead to the destruction of the party".
While making changes in the party bylaw may not be possible immediately, EPS sources say has plans to make the general council members propose and second to appoint him as both coordinator and joint coordinator. There are also plans to create a post above the position of coordinator and joint coordinator. Party insiders say that EPS has proposed to give positions to OPS other than the top leadership. But, the OPS camp feels that EPS has long drawn plans to permanently move OPS out of the party.
With the internal tussle reaching its new heights, all roads lead to the general council on June 23, in Chennai. Even if the internal crisis is resolved, the AIADMK, which has never been able to shun the BJP or walk out of the NDA after the death of Jayalalithaa, might still face political challenges in the state.
