CHENNAI: Functionaries of the Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) camp on Sunday evening said around 90% of the party’s general council members extended their support to KS Thennarasu, the candidate proposed by EPS, and that the members have sent their acceptance letter along with ballot papers to the party headquarters. However, embattled leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) has claimed the presidium chairman did not offer a fair opportunity to the members to select a candidate as per their choice.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the AIADMK that the choice of a candidate for the ensuing Erode East bypoll must be put to vote by the party’s general council (GC), and the GC’s decision must be conveyed to the apex court by the presidium chairman of the party. Accordingly, AIADMK presidium chairman Tamil Magan Husain sent a letter to the GC members, which read, “Edappadi K Palaniswami has proposed the name of KS Thennarasu as the party’s candidate for this by-election. In the ballot paper attached with this letter, you must either say ‘Accepted’ or ‘Declined’, before returning the papers. Sources said the ballot papers were sent to members in the O Panneerselvam faction too.
In a statement on Sunday, OPS said Hussain did not properly follow the Supreme Court instructions. “In the ballot paper circulated to the GC members, the presidium chairman only projected KS Thennarasu, who hasn’t even filed his nomination papers yet, as a candidate for the by-election, while conveniently failing to mention the name of P Senthil Murugan, who has already filed his papers as the AIADMK candidate. Hussain declared Thennarasu as the official candidate in advance and then sought approval of GC members. This clearly reveals that they followed the SC directions in a highly biased manner,” he added.
Indicating that the candidacy issue might take a few more days to entirely resolve, former minister and senior leader Panruti Ramachandran, who is part of the AIADMK camp said on Sunday night, “We can’t sit idle while the other faction blatantly violates SC directions. We will take this ballot paper issue to the notice of the Election Commission of India.” The leader, however, clarified that they would not go against the “Two leaves” symbol allocated to the candidate proposed by EPS.
One of the GC members from a delta district told TNIE on condition of anonymity, “We (GC members) all assembled at the party’s district unit office on Saturday late evening. The ballot papers and affidavits reached the office around 9 pm. We signed in favour of Thennarasu and the documents were immediately sent back to Chennai.” Party functionaries said the ballot papers will be submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday.
As per an affidavit submitted previously by the EPS camp to the ECI, as many as 2,602 GC members stood behind Edappadi K Palaniswami in the last GC meeting held on July 11, while only 152 members extended their support to OPS.
‘No mention of Murugan’
OPS said Hussain did not properly follow the SC instructions. “In the ballot papers circulated, the presidium chairman projected only Thennarasu, who hasn’t even filed his nomination papers yet, as a candidate for the by-election, while conveniently failing to mention the name of P Senthil Murugan, who has already filed his papers as AIADMK candidate. Hussain declared Thennarasu as the official candidate in advance and then sought approval of GC members,” he added.