CHENNAI: Buoyed by the Madras High Court’s refusal to stay the operation of the resolutions passed in the AIADMK general council meeting held on July 11, 2022, the party made a fresh move on Friday by notifying the election for the post of general secretary on March 26. The move is aimed at making Edappadi K Palaniswami, the present interim general secretary, as the general secretary of the party.
Palaniswami is likely to file his nomination papers on Saturday. According to the schedule, the filing of nominations will begin on March 18 and ends on 19. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on March 20 and the next day will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations. The polling will take place on March 26 and counting on March 27. Besides, 84 centres to count the votes have also been announced.
Natham R Viswanathan, and Pollachi V Jayaraman, election commissioners for conducting the election said, “The cadre who wish to contest the election for the post of general secretary can receive the nomination form at party headquarters by paying a fee of Rs 25,000 and submit the forms in accordance with the bylaw 20A 1 (a), (b) and (c).
The bylaws were amended on July 11 last year and they mandate the aspirants of general secretary post to be a member of the party for 10 consecutive years and they should have served as an office-bearer of AIADMK headquarters at least for five years. Besides, the nomination of the functionary should be proposed by 10 district secretaries and seconded by another 10 district secretaries.
One district secretary can propose or second only one candidate for the post of general secretary. Besides, the general secretary thus elected, can appoint deputy general secretaries of AIADMK. O Panneerselvam has been opposing this amendment stating the changes are against the spirit of the bylaws set by MG Ramachandran.
A counsel for OPS told TNIE a clear picture of the next move will be known on Saturday - whether to move an emergency petition or move the Madras HC or Supreme Court on Monday. Political analyst Tharasu Shyam said, “The notification of the post of general secretary will trigger yet another bout of legal battle within the AIADMK, since, till now, the posts of the coordinator and joint coordinator exist on the records of the Election Commission of India.”
However, G Samarasam, AIADMK spokesperson said there is no legal hurdle for the election of Palaniswami as general secretary. He said Palaniswami will be elected unopposed as the general secretary of the party. Incidentally, the notification was issued around 7.15 p.m. on Friday after court hours and the next two days would be holidays for the court. So, the OPS faction may move an emergency petition on Saturday or file a petition seeking to stay the general secretary election on Monday.