TIRUCHY: The Pudukkottai AIADMK office, which was kept locked for over 20 days after the party general secretary appointed a new district secretary after dismissing former minister C Vijayabaskar. The office was opened on Wednesday after Vijayabaskar handed over the keys.
Due to the internal feud in the AIADMK that prevailed after the Assembly polls, as many as 25 MLAs showed interest in supporting TVK to form the government, as it could not gain an absolute majority.
Despite the party general Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s warning against them, they were keen on supporting TVK. This has led Edappadi Palaniswami to remove the party secretaries from various districts, including Pudukkottai, which was under former minister and Viralimalai MLA Vijayabaskar and appointed new district secretaries. For Pudukkottai, EPS appointed the District Youth Wing Secretary V Palanivelu as the district secretary of the party.
However, Vijayabaskar’s supporters prevented the entry of Palanivelu into the office and locked it and kept the keys with them, while a heavy posse of police was deployed to avert any untoward incidents.
Meanwhile, Palanivelu approached the district collector and SP and submitted a petition for his entry into the party office. After a few days, a peace talk was held in the presence of RDO and Vijayabaskar handed over the keys to Palanivelu on Wednesday. Subsequently, he assumed charge as the District Secretary.
“We have been abiding by the law and were fighting in non-violent ways and retrieved the party office after a long legal fight, and the party would see a remarkable growth in the district”, Palanivelu told the reporters after taking charge. He also said that the party would concentrate on the local body polls and would certainly secure all the seats.
Vijayabaskar, who met the reporters, said that he was ‘generous’ enough to hand over the keys of the district party office. “Since I was busy thanking my voters across Viralimalai constituency, there was a delay in handing over the keys”, he justified. He said that he had brought several developments to the people of Pudukkottai during his tenure as minister and MLA.