Accusing the AIADMK ministers of misleading party cadre by making false statements on the merger issue, AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) leader and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam has dared Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to make it clear whether he would sever links with Sasikala and her kin.
“Mr. Edappadi Palanisamy, not others, should categorically state whether he would sever his links with Sasikala and her family,” Mr. Panneerselvam said, indicating that he two factions could merge only if they severed all ties with Sasikala, Mr. Dinakaran and other family members.
Addressing party workers here on Sunday, the former Chief Minister said the Edappadi group was enacting an ‘act of deceit’ on the merger issue and that was why he had announced the disbanding of the committee formed to hold talks on the merger.
Even after he ruled out a merger, some Ministers were deliberately making false statements that talks were going on between the two camps to confuse and mislead the party cadre and the people of the State, he said. “Their evil designs would soon be defeated and the day is not far off when puratchi thalaivi amma ’s rule would flourish in the State,” he said.
Mr. Panneerselvam also alleged that the Edappadi government had entered into a secret pact with the leader of the opposition M.K. Stalin. This was evident when Mr. Stalin, after raising the issue of the Election Commission seeking registration of an FIR against the Chief Minister and others for the alleged electoral malpractices during the R.K. Nagar byelection based on material unearthed during an I-T raid, soft-pedalled the issue after Mr. Palaniswami’s interruption.
After Mr. Palaniswami said one could not take cognisance of something written on a piece of paper (referring to the paper seized during the I-T raid about distribution of cash for votes during the R.K. Nagar byelection), Mr. Stalin conveniently switched over to some other issue, instead of taking on the Chief Minister, he said.
