Amid intense discussions over a number of issues concerning the reorganisation of the ruling AIADMK, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and several senior functionaries of the party met over an hour at the party headquarters in Chennai on Friday.
The meeting assumed importance as it was for the first time that party co-coordinator Mr. Palaniswami and coordinator Mr. Panneerselvam visited the AIADMK office after the eruption of the debate between their respective camps over the AIADMK’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2021 Assembly election.
The day’s event had its share of dramatic moments when Mr. Panneerselvam and Mr. Palaniswami arrived at the party headquarters in Royapettah separately. They were greeted with the slogans of “Amma’s [Jayalalithaa’s] political heir” and “permanent Chief Minister” respectively.
As not all the invitees could make it to the meeting, it was decided that the party’s executive would take stock of all the organisational issues at its meeting on September 28.
Senior leaders said the discussion saw participants speaking on the pros and cons of a host of issues.
For example, there was a view that the party’s existing Coimbatore (Suburban) district unit and two district units of South Chennai (North and South) should be divided further. Likewise, some others questioned why no uniform yardstick was followed on the number of Assembly constituencies to be covered by each district unit of the party. This was because of an opinion in certain sections that for every two Assembly constituencies, there should be one district unit. One reason cited for more number of district units in Chennai was the size of population in the city.
Mr. Panneerselvam was said to have reiterated his demand for the formation of a steering committee of 11 members, an idea which the Chief Minister’s camp said was not workable. There is already in place a panel of five seniors, including deputy coordinator K.P. Munusamy and Electricity Minister P. Thangamani, which would take care of organisational issues.
