The power tussle in the AIADMK has reached a new crescendo with Edappadi K. Palaniswami, in a letter to O. Panneerselvam, claiming that the latter was no more the party coordinator. Asserting himself as the leader of the party, EPS said that the amendments to the party bylaw to facilitate elections to the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator had not been validated by the general council and “so it becomes invalid.”
Palaniswami sent the letter in his capacity as the secretary of party headquarters. Addressing Panneerselvam as “brother”, the letter said: “The amendments to the party bylaw have expired. So, your letter in the capacity of you being the coordinator is invalid.”
Palaniswami also stated that OPS writing a letter to him was unacceptable as he had done “everything to make the AIADMK non-functional”. He said OPS had made all efforts to bring the AIADMK to a standstill by complaining to the Avadi police commissioner and going to the court to prevent the conduct of the general council meeting. “The last day for filing the nomination papers to local body bypolls ended on June 27 and the party had no candidates officially,” he added.
Even as the legal battle between the two are going on in the courts, with each faction filing petitions against the other, OPS on Wednesday late evening wrote a letter to EPS requesting the latter to send Forms A and B for party candidates who will be contesting in the local body bypolls so that the candidates will be able to contest under the party’s two-leaves symbol. OPS' letter apparently was aimed to expose EPS among the cadres saying that the party is losing its ground.
In his reply to OPS, Palaniswami said: “You did everything to push AIADMK to a dysfunctional state and now writing a letter on submitting forms for filing nominations to local body polls is inappropriate. The coordinator post you were holding got expired on June 23 and you boycotted June 27 office bearers meeting.”
The EPS camp, since June 23, has been throwing tantrums at the OPS camp. Former minister C. Ve Shanmugam even went to the extent of saying that “The DMK is backing the OPS faction”. He accused the ruling DMK of trying to intimidate the EPS camp by misusing the law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, the AIADMK has decided to boycott the bypolls to over 500 urban and rural seats out of which 34 will have to be fought under party’s two-leaves symbol. “We have made an informal decision to boycott the polls as the party is at crossroads. Only after the power tussle comes to an end, any decision can be taken,” a senior office bearer told THE WEEK. Incidentally, the party did not release any candidate list officially. Earlier, as the last date for filing nominations ended on Monday and the last day for withdrawal being Thursday, the AIADMK cadres filed nominations as independent candidates. “Why should we give Form A and B? We did not release any official list of candidates,” said an EPS supporter.
On the other side, T.T.V. Dhinakaran who launched his own party Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) in 2018, said that his sleeper cells are still in the AIADMK. Dhinakaran and his aunt V.K. Sasikala have chosen to wait and watch the fight for power in the AIADMK.
