SALEM: AIADMK joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami gave up his urban district secretary post, which he was holding for the past 11 years, and successfully fielded his strong supporter R Elangovan for the post.
It was former chief minister the late J Jayalalithaa who appointed Palaniswami as the Salem urban district secretary in 2011. Later, he was inducted into her cabinet as the state highways minister from 2011 to 2016. He retained the ministry when the AIADMK formed the government for the second term.
"While he became chief minister after Jaya's death, he did not renounce his party post in the district," said a highly placed source with the party. After elections were announced for the internal party posts in the district recently, EPS filed his nomination for the urban secretary post on Monday, the last day to file papers. "Since no one challenged his nomination, we were expecting him to be elected for the post. We were surprised when the party high command announced Elangovan as the district urban secretary on Wednesday evening," the source said. He said EPS had asked Elangovan to file his papers for the post at the eleventh hour and kept the information secret. Another party functionary, who did not want to be named, said many senior party leaders had advised EPS to give up his urban secretary post to his supporters, as he was holding the party's joint coordinator post.
