CHENNAI: AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam was on Monday elected deputy leader of the AIADMK legislature party. The election also makes him the Deputy Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly.
Former Minister SP Velumani has been elected the party's whip in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
Decisions to this effect were taken at the AIADMK legislature party meeting held on Monday at the party headquarters here. The meeting lasted for around three hours.
Party coordinator O Panneerselvam and Joint Coordinator Edapadi K Palaniswami announced this in a joint statement after the meeting and they said the office-bearers have been elected unanimously at the MLAs’ meeting.
S Ravi, MLA from Arakkonam seat, has been chosen as the deputy whip while former minister Kadambur C Raju will be the treasurer of the legislature party. Former Minister KP Anbazhagan is secretary.
Last month, Palaniswami was elected as leader of the AIADMK legislature party amidst reports about differences of opinion on this issue with Panneerselvam. Till Monday morning, there were speculations that Panneerselvam was firm on not accepting the post of deputy leader and insisting that one of his supporters should be made as party whip since this post is the key one as far as the Assembly is concerned.