At a time when differences have arisen between rival groups and calls made for single leadership in the party, senior leaders of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Monday inspected arrangements at a private hall in Chennai's Vanagaram for holding a crucial party general body meeting on June 23.
The leaders who inspected arrangements were AIADMK party's deputy coordinator KP Munuswamy, former Ministers CV Shanmugam, Thangamani, Velumani, RP Udayakumar, Dindigul Srinivasan, Senkottaiyan, Vijayabaskar, Benjamin, Talawai Sundaram, AIADMK Deputy General Coordinator Cellur Raju, Kadampur Raju, Natham Viswanathan and Kamaraj. Soon after the inspection, Munuswamy spoke to the media and said that AIADMK general council meeting will be held on June 23 as per the schedule. The party hasn't received any letter from O Paneerselvam (OPS) asking it to adjourn the meeting. As all the inter-party elections are over, the district Secretaries' meeting was held on June 14, the general committee should be convened immediately and the approval should be obtained and sent to the Election Commission, he said. "It was OPS who spoke as they could hold this meeting without special invitees and then convene another meeting. He was the one who approved the resolutions to be passed in the general assembly," he added. He further said that volunteers from all towns are eager to have this general assembly meeting, and to know whether there will be a resolution on a single leadership or not. The steps to bring the party back to power will be taken up at the meeting. The general committee is empowered and all the members of the committee have written a letter to hold this general committee meeting as planned, he said. "So of course, the general body meeting will be held in which the AIADMK coordinator OPS will participate for sure and the coordinator will all be bound by the decisions made in the meeting," he said. Meanwhile, former AIADMK Minister D Jayakumar said that the meeting General council meeting will be held on Thursday defiantly and also confirmed that he is in support of Edappadi K Palanisamy (EPS). "The General Council meeting will happen for sure on June 23. Most of the party members want single leadership and 99 per cent of them are supporting EPS. I am also in favour of EPS," he added. Last week, amid controversy over the issue of single leadership in AIADMK between party coordinator O Paneerselvam (OPS) and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palanisamy (EPS), the former held an "individual meeting" with his supporters and district secretaries at the party office here. Outside the party office, OPS and EPS supporters raised slogans praising their leaders and there was slogan war for a few minutes. One of the EPS supporters was allegedly attacked by the OPS supporters all of sudden and he left the party office immediately. There was a poster war too between OPS and EPS supporters all over Chennai on the single leadership issue. (ANI)
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