Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s chief opposition party, the AIADMK elected Edappady K Palaniswami (EPS) as its Interim General Secretary on Monday and vested in him full powers to helm the organisation. It also assured steps to ease rival leader and treasurer O Panneerselvam (OPS) out of the party, after its General Council members demanded action to expel him from the organisation.
In its Executive Committee and General Council meeting held here, the AIADMK endorsed scrapping the erstwhile top two positions of Coordinator and Joint Coordinator held by O Panneerselvam and (OPS) Palaniswami, respectively. The party has also formally resolved to hold organisational polls in 4 months to elect General Secretary. It has amended several bylaws, which includes fresh norms and prerequisites to fight for the top party position of General Secretary.
In total, 16 resolutions were adopted. While Panneerselvam is the party treasurer, senior leader and former Minister C Vijayabaskar presented accounts related to party finances in the meet. It is seen as a clear indication that OPS would soon be eased out of his position. The first resolution extended its greetings to partymen elected in the recent organisational polls for various levels. The second resolution urged the Centre to confer ‘Bharat Ratna’ on late leaders– social justice icon Periyar E V Ramasamy, Dravidian movement’s father figure CN Annadurai, and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa.
In his address to the GC meeting, senior leader Natham Viswanathan tore into Panneerselvam alleging he had a ‘brutal face’ completely opposite to his reputation as a ‘calm person.’ Viswanathan, a former Minister said Panneerselvam always said one thing and acted completely against it. Quoting the 19th Century reformist saint Vallalar’s verses, he said there should be no links whatsoever with Panneerselvam as he always hid within him what he wanted and spoke an entirely different thing to the outside world. AIADMK veteran and former Minister Dindigul C Srinivasan dubbed OPS as a ‘betrayer’ and demanded the ouster of Panneerselvam and his supporters from the party.
Incidentally, Jayalalithaa helmed the party for decades as its powerful general secretary while her close aide, VK Sasikala, was made interim general secretary for a brief period following the former’s death in December 2016. Sasikala, who was later convicted and sentenced in a disproportionate assets case, was subsequently sacked from the post in 2017 by a then AIADMK GC.
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