The General Council meeting held on June 23 rejected all the 23 draft decisions taken by the party and sought for unitary relationship for the party.
The AIADMK’s dominant Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) faction, on Friday, June 24, asserted that the system of dual leadership that vested powers on Coordinator O Panneerselvam (OPS) and Joint Coordinator EPS ceased to be in force, a day after the General Council stood firm on the single leadership demand. “Amendments that were related to top two party posts — which were made to party by-laws on December 1, 2021 — were not ratified by the General Council which met on June 23, 2022,” senior leader and EPS loyalist, CVe Shanmugam said.
Last year, by-laws were tweaked to retain and further strengthen the dual system of leadership, favouring OPS and EPS. After the by-laws were amended, OPS and EPS were declared elected unopposed as Coordinator and Co-Coordinator of the party respectively. Such amendments made it mandatory that the nominees to the two top posts of Coordinator and Joint Coordinator should be elected by the party’s primary members through a single vote, Shanmugam told reporters.
However, since these amendments related to the top two party posts were not recognised and endorsed by the General Council on Thursday, June 23, these two positions have now become defunct, he said and added that OPS was no longer the Coordinator and EPS ceased to be the Joint-Coordinator. The duo, however, continue to hold on to their other posts of Treasurer (OPS) and Headquarters Secretary (EPS), Shanmugam said, extensively quoting from the party’s rule book.
The assertion makes it clear that the EPS faction is determined to move forward and make EPS the numero uno, supreme leader on July 11, when the General Council is scheduled to meet again.
The general council meeting held on June 23 witnessed a scuffle between the OPS and EPS factions, which ended up in the former alleging that they were assaulted by the EPS faction. As soon as the new date for the next meeting was announced, OPS took to the mic to address the gathering but there were some technical issues and he walked out of the meeting. However, deputy coordinator R Vaithiyalingam shouted into the mic saying that they were rejecting the new dates for the General Council meeting and that it was against the law. OPS, along with his supporters staged a walkout, when water bottles were hurled at them from the audience.
Read: Why leaders who stood by OPS earlier have deserted him
Source: The News Minute