AIADMK holds crucial meeting in Chennai

The first after the results of the Lok Sabha election and Assembly bypolls

(From left): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK co-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami. Deputy Chief Minister and coordinator O. Panneerselvam and chairman of the party’s presidium E. Madhusudanan at the party headquarters in Chennai on Wednesday, June 12, 2019.

A crucial meeting of the AIADMK’s legislators, parliamentarians, district secretaries and other functionaries commenced at the party headquarters in Chennai on Wednesday morning in the presence of Chief Minister and party co-coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister and coordinator O. Panneerselvam.

Radha Ravi rejoins AIADMK

Minutes before the meeting began, film actor and former Saidapet MLA Radha Ravi

rejoined the party in the presence of the Chief Minister.

In March 2017, Mr. Ravi left the AIADMK to rejoin DMK , which he left in early 2000. He was elected from the Saidapet in a by-election in 2002 on the AIADMK ticket. But he was not re-nominated in the 2006 election.

Expected to last a few hours, the meeting is the first such event after the results of the Lok Sabha polls and Assembly bypolls, in which the party performed badly. Out of the 22 Lok Sabha constituencies it contested, the AIADMK bagged just one seat, while in the Assembly by-elections, it captured 9 out of 22 seats.

The event assumes importance in the light of a demand by

sections of the party for a single leadership instead of the present arrangement of dual leadership.

Outside the party headquarters, a poster, welcoming Mr. Palaniswami and identifying him as the party general secretary, has been put up by a member of the Chennai district unit.