CHENNAI: A week after AIADMK veteran leader KA Sengottaiyan met Union Home Minister Amit Shah as part of his efforts to bring back all those who drifted away from the party into AIADMK-fold, party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami is visiting New Delhi on September 16.
Though an AIADMK release on Sunday said that Palaniswami will only call on Vice President CP Radhakrishnan to congratulate him, he is likely to meet Shah and hold discussions on the recent political developments, sources said.
Sengottaiyan called on Shah and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on September 9 and on the next day, told reporters that he discussed the importance of the coming together of all AIADMK leaders who broke away from the party. Shah and Sitharaman giving audience to Sengottaiyan, who has been stripped of party posts after setting a 10-day ultimatum to Palaniswami to initiate a process for bringing back all the leaders who had gone out of the party, disturbed the AIADMK leaders.
There were expectations that Palaniswami might take further action against Sengottaiyan since the latter’s meeting with a BJP leader to discuss AIADMK affairs questioned the party leadership. A few days later, Palaniswami said the AIADMK remained united and would prove this in the 2026 Assembly election.
So far, Palaniswami has not reacted to Sengottaiyan’s call to unify the party or his meeting with Shah. Palaniswami is expected to take up these issues with Shah and also about the steps to strengthen the AIADMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu to face the election.