A scheduled meeting of senior leaders, Ministers, functionaries, legislators and parliamentarians of the AIADMK on Wednesday may not come up with any formula to resolve the “problem of infighting”.
Ever since the Member of the Legislative Assembly from Madurai North, V.V. Rajan Chellappa, demanded a unitary leadership in the party, views had been expressed both in favour of and against the present arrangement of dual leadership. An appeal by O. Panneerselvam, coordinator of the party and Deputy Chief Minister, and Edappadi K. Palaniswami, co-coordinator and Chief Minister, to their colleagues not to express their opinions on such matters in public apparently did not yield the desired result.
A cross-section of leaders said the meeting may not be a smooth affair, and it was quite likely that some participants may raise “unpalatable issues” that had contributed to the party’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls. Still, Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam may decide to have such issues, along with the demand for a unitary leadership, thrashed out at a meeting of the General Council, which is due this month.
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On Monday, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar told reporters that there were various fora, including the General Council, where issues related to the organisation could be raised.
The Council should have met in December last year. As the party had sought more time from the Election Commission, a period of six months was provided by the poll watchdog.
A section of the party functionaries viewed the demand of Mr. Rajan Chellappa as one aimed at sidelining Mr. Panneerselvam and catapulting Mr. Palaniswami to the position of the prime leader, while another was of the opinion that the Madurai North legislator’s call had to be viewed against the recent defeat of his son, V.V.R. Raj Satyen, in the Madurai parliamentary constituency.
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The meeting may end with yet another joint appeal from the coordinator and co-coordinator to party members. Apart from this, it may not even throw up any indication on who would get Rajya Sabha tickets, the leaders added.
A. Tamizhmagan Hussain, secretary of the MGR Mandrams, was reported to have requested Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami to allot a Rajya Sabha seat to him, considering that he had been in public life for over 60 years and had not served as an MLA or an MP all these years.