With just a day to go for their oath-taking and the election of the Speaker, AIADMK MLAs will meet on Monday morning at the party office to elect their floor leader, who will also be the Leader of the Opposition in the House.
In view of the full lockdown from Monday and all meetings inside auditoriums and meeting halls being banned, N. Balaganga, former MP and a district secretary of the AIADMK, informed the police of the meeting at the party headquarters.
“During the COVID-19 period, we have to inform the police about such meetings and we did that. It was not to seek permission,” he said.
Party leaders said the meeting would be held following COVID-19 protocols and since it was a meeting of MLAs, the police had to be informed.
Two senior leaders of the party told The Hindu that the issue of selecting the floor leader is expected to be resolved.
“There should not be any problem and it will be resolved smoothly. The leader will be decided by the MLAs and the Assembly Secretariat will be informed,” one of the leaders said.
Asked about the heated arguments on Friday between supporters of former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and former Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, staking claim to the post of the Leader of the Opposition, a leader laughed off the question.
“There will not be any issue,” he said.
Friday’s meeting witnessed heated arguments and the party decided to put off the decision till Monday.
The dispute spilled over to the Marina when the two leaders visited Jayalalithaa’s mausoleum late at night with supporters raising slogans in support of their leaders.
He said the issue of having a single leader for the party, which was raised at Friday’s meeting, cannot be decided now and a meeting of the general council and executive committee has to be called to take a call on that.
“Whether we continue with the dual leadership or select a single leader is a question for another day,” the leader said.
(With inputs from Vivek Narayanan)
