CHENNAI: The rebellion against AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami came out in the open on Monday, with rival factions submitting separate letters staking claim for their respective leader to be recognised as the Legislature Party leader.
The split surfaced in the aftermath of the Assembly election results, in which the AIADMK was reduced to the third position with 47 MLAs, behind its arch rival MK Stalin-led DMK, which secured 59 seats.
The faction led by senior leaders SP Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam is understood to be in favour of extending support to the C Joseph Vijay-led TVK government, while Palaniswami is said to be opposed to the move.
Signs of the internal division became visible during the first session of the new Assembly itself, with Palaniswami and the Velumani-Shanmugam camp sitting separately.
Palaniswami occupied a seat in the second row of the fifth block along with senior leaders, including N Thalavai Sundaram and Agri SS Krishnamoorthy. Velumani and Shanmugam, meanwhile, were seated together in a separate row along with their supporters.
The members of the two factions even avoided exchanging greetings before taking oath. However, when Palaniswami and Velumani took oath as MLAs, party members thumped desks in support of both leaders, leading to visible confusion in the House.
Later, 23 MLAs backing Palaniswami met pro tem Speaker MV Karuppaiah and submitted a letter stating that he had been elected as the leader of the AIADMK Legislature Party.
In a parallel move later in the evening, 24 MLAs supporting the Shanmugam camp submitted a separate letter claiming that Velumani had been elected Legislature Party leader and Shanmugam the deputy leader.
The AIADMK currently has 76 district secretaries, with one section backing Shanmugam and the other supporting Palaniswami. The Shanmugam faction is expected to press for a general council meeting to oust Palaniswami from the general secretary post.
The differences are reminiscent of the factional feuds that the party has witnessed in the past: first in 1987 after his protégé J Jayalalithaa and wife Janaki staked claim after party founder MG Ramachandran died in 1987, second after Jaya’s death in 2017 between O Panneerselvam and VK Sasikala, and the third after Panneerselvam was expelled.