CHENNAI: Even as the tug of war between the two rival factions of the AIADMK continued, Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar, on Friday, said that representations from both groups — one led by party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and the other by former minister C Ve Shanmugam — regarding the appointment of the legislature party leader, whip and other office-bearers are under his consideration and that he would take appropriate decision.
To a related question, the speaker said he would announce the decision on the representations in the Assembly. On Friday, former ministers C Ve Shanmugam, R Kamaraj and C Vijaya Baskar met the speaker and urged him to recognise the office-bearers of their faction.
Meanwhile, the residences of Palaniswami and Shanmugam were busy with visiting office-bearers and continued discussions. Former AIADMK minister P Benjamin, who was removed from his party post (organising secretary and Tiruvallur district secretary) for supporting the Shanmugam faction, offered prayers at the memorial of former CM J Jayalalithaa on Thursday night. On Friday morning, Benjamin called on Palaniswami and held discussions. However, he did not clarify whether he remains in the Shanmugam faction or not.
Office-bearers from Sholingur in the Ranipet constituency expressed their solidarity with Palaniswami and said that the AIADMK chief had assured them that all issues would be settled soon. Senior AIADMK functionary Adhi Rajaram recalled that party founder M G Ramachandran had removed senior functionaries for anti-party activities. Palaniswami has also acted in the same way, and he has taken the right decision, he said.
Meanwhile, S P Velumani, who has been elected as the legislature party leader of the AIADMK by the Shanmugam faction, in a statement, responded to an official release from Palaniswami regarding the ongoing issues in the party, and criticised the AIADMK leadership for failing to understand the ground reality after the party’s electoral defeat.
While acknowledging Palaniswami’s campaign efforts, he alleged that key decisions on alliances and election strategy were taken unilaterally without consulting party functionaries.
“After the party’s defeat in the election, Palaniswami should have initiated discussions with everyone. Instead of doing that, he continued to act as if his decision was final. No conscious and committed party worker would accept such an approach,” Velumani added.
Velumani further said the majority of AIADMK MLAs, district secretaries and cadre favoured extending support to the TVK government in line with the people’s mandate and denied allegations of attempting to split the party.