Edappadi K. Palaniswami will be the ruling AIADMK’s candidate for the post of Chief Minister for the upcoming 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly election.
Deputy Chief Minister and party coordinator O. Pannerselvam announced this at the party headquarters on Wednesday morning in the presence of senior leaders and Ministers ending the unease within the party over the issue since August 15.
Prior to Mr. Panneerselvam’s announcement, the Chief Minister, as an indication of agreeing to the former’s principal demand for an eleven-member steering committee, made public the composition of the panel, which would guide the organisation on all matters. The formation of the panel was one of the points of agreement at the time of merger of groups led by Mr Palaniswami and Mr Pannerselvam in August 2017. A resolution adopted by the general council in September 2017 too made a mention of the committee.
Those who made it to the panel were Dindigul C.Sreenivasan, R. Kamaraj, P. Thangamani, S.P. Velumani, D. Jayakumar and C.Ve. Shanmugam, all Ministers; K. Manickam, Sholavandan legislator;P Mohan, former Minister; P.H. Manoj Pandian and R Gopalakrishnan, former Members of Parliament, and J.C.D. Prabhakar, former Villivakkam legislator. The first six were regarded as nominees of the Chief Minister and the last five, those of the Deputy Chief Minister.
Conspicuously no woman leader was nominated to the steering committee. Former Ministers B. Valarmathi and Gokula Indira were said to be aspirants for a slot in the committee.
Mr. Panneerselvam pointed out that the move to make Mr Palaniswami the party’s CM nominee was in tune with the decision taken at a meeting chaired by chairman of the party presidium, E. Madhusudanan and attended by key functionaries. He added that this was approved by senior office-bearers and the steering committee.
The day’s developments brought to a close the debate witnessed by the AIADMK in the last two month s over the issue of the CM candidate. After a stormy meeting of the party’s executive on September 28 wherein Mr Panneerselvam and Mr Palaniswami had aired their differences, the former did not attend a meeting held by the latter on the prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic in the State. After the Deputy Chief Minister’s return to Chennai on Monday night from his home district of Theni where he met his supporters over the last weekend, negotiations between camps of the two leaders commenced on Tuesday morning and lasted till early hours of Wednesday.
Asked why the discussion went on for hours, sources in the party said most of the time was spent with regard to finalising names of the members. Shortly, the terms of reference regarding the committee would be worked out as the panel’s functions and powers had not been spelt out in the party constitution.
Mr Palaniswami, who hails from Salem in the western district of the State, became the Chief Minister in February 2017 under dramatic circumstances after Mr Panneerselvam quit as Chief Minister and the Supreme Court confirmed conviction of V.K.Sasikala , former interim general secretary of the party. The fact that his government completed more than three-and-a-half years in office disproved initial forecast made by the Opposition regarding the early end of his regime. In the last three and odd years, his party generally supported the BJP-led Central government though it had taken a different stand on issues such as the three-language formula proposed in the National Education Policy and free power for farmers.
It was for the first time that the AIADMK had made a formal declaration regarding the CM nominee. However, when the party was led by the party founder M. G. Ramachandran and his successor, Jayalalithaa, it went without saying that the two leaders were the organisation's candidates for the CM post.
