CHENNAI: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Tuesday separately held talks with senior functionaries of the party, including KP Munusamy, P Thangamani, SP Velumani, and RB Udhayakumar, on the constitution of a steering committee and how responsibilities would be shared.
Senior leaders however, exuded confidence that an announcement on the CM candidate for the upcoming polls as well as the steering committee would be made on Wednesday.
The first round of talks with Panneerselvam lasted over two and a half hours. In the afternoon, senior ministers, KA Sengottaiyan, D Jayakumar, KP Anbazhagan, R Kamaraj, C Vijayabaskar, Natham R Viswanathan, and Udumalai Radhakrishnan held talks. N Thalavaisundaram, representative of the TN government in New Delhi, also held talks. Hectic parleys continued in the evening as well.
A senior functionary, who was part of the talks, said the steering committee would be formed by the end of the day.
Meanwhile, party sources said there would be no problem in announcing Palaniswami as the CM candidate, but it took time to sort out other issues, including constitution of the committee, where both sides had differences.
The discussions centred around giving representation to all key communities and on choosing members of the committee.
While there were suggestions that those who already hold a party post should not become members, others wanted senior ministers and functionaries to be included.
Some also suggested to increase the strength to 12, said sources.
Minister D Jayakumar and former MP Anwar Razza said the issues would be sorted out cordially and announcements would be made on Wednesday.
Jayakumar said that there ought to be some discussions among “the brothers”, and that they would be resolved. Senior ministers were still holding talks with the CM at his residence till midnight.