A meeting of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) functionaries, organised here on Sunday to discuss Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s birthday celebrations, witnessed unpleasant scenes when the ruling party’s factionalism came to the fore.
Problem started when area secretary ‘Pookkadai’ Sappaanimuthu said that the organisers should have given “due importance” to the area secretaries by printing their names in the invitation for the meeting. While a few more area secretaries raised slogans in support of Mr. Sappaanimuthu, the office-bearers pacified him.
Even as the commotion was subsiding, a chair was thrown towards the spot where the problem was going on, and it triggered another round of ruckus. At one point, some of the local office-bearers sitting on the dais had to come down to pacify those who were involved in heated argument.
The meeting that thanked Ms. Jayalalithaa for having announced compensation for the farmers and taken legal initiatives to publish in the gazette the final award of Cauvery River Water Dispute Tribunal, resolved to distribute welfare measures to the needy as part of the birthday celebration and offer special prayers on behalf of the party in temples, mosques and churches on February 24.
Minister for Khadi and Village Industries P. Senthurpandian, Mayor Vijila Sathyananth, former Assembly Speaker P.H. Pandian, Tirunelveli MLA Nainar Nagendran, Tamil Nadu Housing Board chairman R. Murugaiah Pandian, former Mayor A. Jayarani and Tirunelveli City district secretary Sudha K. Paramasivan were among those who participated in the meeting.
