CHENNAI: Three weeks after rival factions in the AIADMK announced a truce, the party’s internal turmoil deepened on Monday as senior leaders exchanged charges and counter-charges over the leadership style of general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, his handling of the party’s electoral setbacks and alleged moves to induct his son, P Mithun Kumar, into politics.
Palaniswami loyalist Agri S S Krishnamurthy strongly rebutted former minister C Ve Shanmugam’s allegations and accused him of attempting to sow confusion within the party.
Taking a cue from Shanmugam, another ex-minister, C Vijaya Baskar, also made a post online attacking Palaniswami, criticising his style of expelling party functionaries for questioning the leadership.
“A leadership that treats sincere cadre working for the party as adversaries, and a style of politics that views questioning as a crime, cannot lead the party to victory. History will not remember how many people were expelled; it will remember how many were brought together and how many elections were won,” Vijaya Baskar said.
Meanwhile, in yet another development, AIADMK IT Wing secretary Raj Satyen said, “Efforts are being made to drag non-political individuals, including the general secretary’s family members, into political debates and build a narrative against the party. It would be wrong to discuss such issues, whatever may have been the occasion.”
Palaniswami did not respond to the criticisms of the two former ministers in his cabinet.
However, Krishnamurthy vociferously responded to Shanmugam’s comments. Referring to the demand of Shanmugam for convening the executive committee and general council to discuss reasons for AIADMK’s defeat in the elections,
Krishnamurthy said that Palaniswami had announced that he would seek the views of all party districts on the electoral defeats and would later announce the measures for strengthening the party by convening the meeting of the executive committee as well as the general council.
It is in this backdrop, Palaniswami heard the views of the grassroots-level office-bearers of three party districts in Kancheepuram district on June 13, Krishnamurthy said and explained that only a limited number of leaders could speak at the executive and general council meetings. But at the district level meetings, many office-bearers could convey their views.
Referring to Shanmugam’s remark that the AIADMK could win 31 seats in the northern Tamil Nadu only with the help of the PMK, Krishnamurthy said, “If so, why could Shanmugam not win from Villupuram constituency in the 2021 Assembly elections when the PMK was in the AIADMK alliance? Shanmugam is the only reason for the AIADMK’s defeat in the Villupuram district. He should first explain why the candidates proposed by him in Villupuram district could not win.” Krishnamurthy also stoutly denied any attempt to form a government with the help of the DMK.