CHENNAI: Stoutly denying the contentions of Edappadi K Palaniswami in his legal notice sent a few days ago, O Panneerselvam on Monday said Palaniswami had no authority to represent the AIADMK as he was “just a former joint coordinator of the party”.
Palaniswami, in his notice, had alleged that Panneerselvam had misused the AIADMK’s name, flag and seal while calling for a meeting of the district secretaries on December 21,2022.
Panneerselvam, in his legal notice, pointed out that neither the Madras High Court nor the Supreme Court orders placed any embargo on him from using the name, seal and office address of the AIADMK in his communications in the capacity of the coordinator of the party. Also, the meeting on December 17 took place at a different place and not at the party headquarters.
Panneerselvam also said the “so-called election” of Palaniswami as the interim general secretary was illegal since the very convening of the meeting on July 11, where he claimed to have been elected as interim general secretary, was invalid and had been challenged in court.
Paneeerselvam said he was validly functioning as the coordinator and treasurer of the AIADMK. He was elected as coordinator by the entire members of the party, and the general council did not have the power to expel the coordinator from the primary membership of the AIADMK.
“It is blatantly incorrect to state that no post (of) coordinator exists in the AIADMK as of date. The Madras High Court had already clearly left open the issue of whether the post of coordinator had lapsed as a matter to be determined at trial in the pending civil suits. As such, Panneerselvam is undoubtedly the party’s coordinator and well within his rights to inform the public of this position,” the notice added.