COIMBATORE: In what is interpreted as a sign of crack within the dissenters’ camp of the AIADMK, senior leader P Thangamani, who was with the rebels till now, came out on Friday with an open endorsement of the leadership general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, stating that he would soon return as the chief minister.
Thangamani made the comment while leading an AIADMK demonstration at Fort Maidan in Salem, which incidentally is Palaniswami’s home turf, as part of the party’s statewide agitation demanding a complete waiver of crop loans and pressing for Tamil Nadu’s rights in the Cauvery water dispute.
Addressing the party functionaries who assembled for the rally, Thangamani also sought to highlight Palaniswami’s stand on the proposed Mekedatu dam in Karnataka, saying the AIADMK chief had written to the Union government on the issue. “But the TVK government had failed to take the issue seriously despite its implications,” he said.
Targeting the TVK-led government in his speech, Thangamani alleged that several schemes introduced by former chief ministers, J Jayalalithaa and Palaniswami, had merely been renamed and reintroduced by the present government.
“People have now begun regretting their decision to vote for the TVK. This government will not survive for long, and Palaniswami will soon become chief minister,” he said.
He also praised Palaniswami for leading the party and its government, and then protecting it after it was removed from power in the 2021 Assembly elections. This stood in sharp contrast with the accusations by the dissidents, who blamed Palaniswami for being squarely responsible for the AIADMK’s present plight.
Thangamani’s participation assumes significance as other senior leaders of the rebel faction, SP Velumani and Natham R Viswanathan, stayed away from the protest due to differences with the party’s leadership. They had even shot off letters to Palaniswami, copies of which were later released to the media, accusing him of organising the protest in such a way that the dissenting leaders were made in charge of the protests organised away from their strongholds.