The AIADMK — the opposition party in Tamil Nadu and the balancing force in the state to the ruling DMK — has been gripped by an internal power struggle that spilled out into the open with calls for a single leadership for the party.
The first sign of fomenting trouble was a proclamation by spokesperson D Jayakumar at a press meeting after a meeting of key functionaries last week. He said, rather cryptically, that there have been some voices seeking “single leadership” for the party.
The cat was out of the bag.
“We want single leadership” is now a recurring chorus outside the headquarters. The slogans were first raised by Edappadi K Palaniswami’s loyalists and this was followed by the OPS camp’s sloganeering, demanding a “unified leadership”.
Since then, the chorus for EPS as the leader of the party grew louder and, to counter this, O Panneerselvam’s loyalists put out posters claiming that OPS is the leader chosen by late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa.
For OPS, a rebellion is not new. He had famously rebelled against the party reins going to the family of VK Sasikala in February 2017. Eleven MLAs walked into his camp while Sasikala tried to keep the flock together even as she headed to prison to serve her term in a disproportionate assets case.
Now, OPS’s rebellion has even fewer takers. Only old-timers JCD Prabhakaran and Manoj Pandian are still standing by him. Significantly, former loyalists K Pandiarajan and V Maitreyan have gone and met Edappadi Palaniswami and expressed solidarity to his leadership.
With reduced lawmaker support and little backing on the ground, OPS took the legal route to stop a key meeting on Thursday, at which EPS is tipped to be elected the numero uno leader of the party. However, the Madras High Court on Wednesday refused to stall the meeting. But in some relief to OPS, the Chief Justice of the HC said that while the general council meeting can happen on Thursday, only the 23 draft resolutions can be passed. The other resolutions (single leadership) can be discussed but cannot be passed.
With inputs from News18
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