In the middle of the stand-off in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Saturday, the rival camps in the AIADMK were involved in talks for a rapprochement on the floor of the House.
Multiple sources confirmed to The Hindu that the Sasikala camp tried hard to find a solution to the factional feud and spoke to various members in O. Panneerselvam’s camp.
Shortly after the DMK members were evicted from the Assembly and the Congress and IUML members walked out, the two camps were engaged in talks to end the impasse.
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Sets condition
“There was an attempt at rapprochement from their side. It came between 2.30 p.m. and 3 p.m. [just before the voting],” said a source. “However, it was conveyed to them that a coming together was ruled out until they accepted Mr. Panneerselvam as Chief Minister and leader of the party.”
In the morning, Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar was seen talking to Mettur MLA S. Semmalai, who is in Mr. Panneerselvam’s camp, on the floor of the Assembly. Talks continued in the afternoon outside. However, the efforts fell through as the condition to make Mr. Panneerselvam the leader was not acceptable to Sasikala’s camp. Eventually, Edappadi K. Palaniswami won the vote of confidence.
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Interestingly, Mr. Panneerselvam had said that Mr. Vijaya Baskar was the first to seek the appointment of Sasikala as the party general secretary.