Panneerselvam ceases to be party coordinator, says AIADMK leader Shanmugam, dual leadership ends

AIADMK leader CV Shanmugam on Friday said that senior leader O Panneerselvam (OPS), who openly opposed the idea of a single leadership, has ceased to be the coordinator of the party.

This comes after the general council meeting which was meant to adopt several resolutions on June 23 ended in vain.

While speaking with media persons today, CV Shanmugam said, "General Council Meeting of AIADMK happened yesterday. As of yesterday, in the AIADMK general council meeting, the earlier modified bylaw resolution was not tabled. So now automatically dual leadership has expired."

This means, in a simplified version that, AIADMK's dominant Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) faction today 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.

"Panneerselvam is only the treasurer of AIADMK and Edappadi K Palaniswami is the headquarters secretary of the party," added Shanmugham during the press meet where he was seen along with other senior AIADMK leaders like SP Velumani, D Jayakumar, C Vijayabaskar and others.

Notably, till 2016, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was the sole leader of the AIADMK. When Jayalalithaa passed away in 2016, the party decided to appoint OPS to the Chief Minister's chair.

However, in February 2017, AIADMK suffered a crushing defeat in the state elections and Sasikala, Jayalalithaa's close aide, decided to take over the leadership. Subsequently, OPS was replaced as CM by EPS. This caused a lot of turmoil in the AIADMK.

As time passed by, OPS became the coordinator of AIADMK with EPS becoming the co-coordinator. AIADMK was being run as a party with dual leadership. But now, the call for a unitary leadership has intensified and all eyes are on the crucial general council meeting on July 11. (ANI)