CHENNAI: Keen to set the house in order after the ripples caused by influential dissenters, Chief Minister ‘Edappadi’ K Palaniswami held discussions with a group of disgruntled MLAs, including three former ministers, with a view to sort out disagreements that have been rocking the party.
During the meeting, dissenters raised five demands, including a meeting of the legislative members owing allegiance to the faction within a week. They also urged the leadership to hasten the process of merger, seeking a discussion on the multiple voices from within that are hampering the merger. Their actual grouse, sources said, is that they are not consulted on key party affairs, which is now being controlled by a senior team that includes their arch-rivals in the intra-party feuds.
Among those who met the CM for 45 minutes were MLAs ‘Thoppu’ ND Venkatachalam, V Senthil Balaji and P Palaniappan, all former ministers, V Panneerselvam, Thusi K Mohan, R Murugan and R Balasubramani. After the meeting, the CM and dissenters held separate meetings with party presidium chairman and School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan and treasurer ‘Dindigul’ C Sreenivasan.