AIADMK says party will take back anyone apart from Panneerselvam, Sasikala and Dhinakaran
The Hindu
The statement by the AIADMK’s organising secretary D. Jayakumar came on Friday, a day after a Supreme Court verdict restored Edappadi K. Palaniswami as the party’s leader; he accused deposed coordinator O. Panneerselvam of working as “part of the B team of the ruling DMK”
The AIADMK will welcome anyone other than the party’s deposed coordinator, O. Panneerselvam, former interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala and the AMMK’s general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran, according to D. Jayakumar, the party’s organisation secretary.
Addressing reporters at the party headquarters in Chennai on Friday, Mr. Jayakumar said that apart from these three persons, “No one is our adversary.” Mr Panneerselvam, he said, had been functioning as part of the “B team of the ruling DMK.” It was the view of the AIADMK general council and all the workers that Mr. Panneerselvam could not be admitted again into the party, the former Minister said.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court had affirmed a Madras High Court order upholding the conduct of a special general council meeting in July that chose Mr. Palaniswami as interim general secretary and expelled rival O. Panneerselvam from the party
Responding to the observation by the rival camp that as per the records of the Election Commission of India, Mr. Panneerselvam remained the AIADMK coordinator, the former Minister replied that a team led by the Rajya Sabha MP, C.Ve. Shanmugam, would submit a copy of the Supreme Court’s judgement in the AIADMK case to the EC, after which the EC would conduct itself as per the court’s ruling.
As for the position of Theni Lok Sabha MP P. Ravindhranath, Mr. Jayakumar said that a letter had been given to Speaker of the House Om Birla that the MP had nothing to do with the party. “We will give another letter, reiterating our position,” Mr Jayakumar added.
Earlier, the party’s interim general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami cut a cake of 75 kg to mark the 75 th birth anniversary of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at the party headquarters. He also inaugurated a health camp and a free feast programme on the occasion. He paid floral tributes to the statues of the party founder M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa, in addition to hoisting the party flag.