Chennai: Fissures in the opposition AIADMK deepened on Tuesday with a group of MLAs led by senior leaders SP Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam accusing party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami of seeking an alliance with archrival DMK to keep TVK away from power, and announced support for the C Joseph Vijay-led dispensation ahead of its floor test on Wednesday.
About 30 MLAs, including the two senior leaders, are believed to be in the camp that has been opposed to Palaniswami’s leadership following the party’s debacle in the April 23 polls, where it won from 47 out of the 164 seats it contested.
The party hit out at the rival camp MLAs over their criticism of Palaniswami and described as “rumours” reports of him wanting to join hands with the DMK.
The rumblings in the MGR-founded AIADMK have led to speculations of the party heading for a split, similar to those in the wake of the former’s death in 1987, as well as post the demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in December 2016.
On Tuesday, the Velumani-Shanmugam-led camp said that they have decided to support the TVK government led by Chief Minister Vijay.
Speaking to reporters, Shanmugam said they would be meeting Vijay this afternoon to provide a letter supporting his government.
He also alleged that party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami wanted to form a government with the support of DMK.
The AIADMK senior leaders have urged Palaniswami to convene a party’s general council meeting to thoroughly deliberate on the reasons for the electoral debacle and to strengthen the party in the future.
“However, he (Palaniswami) wanted to form a government with the support of DMK”, he claimed, adding “the proposal is against the fundamental principles of AIADMK.” Pointing out that the AIADMK was floated to oppose and “uproot” DMK, Shanmugam said all the party members have opposed Palaniswami’s proposal to form a government with the support of the MK Stalin-led party.
The party needs to a “new life now,” and the “Amma (Jayalalithaa) rule” should come back and therefore the support to TVK, he added.
The MLAs have elected Velumani as their floor leader.
Meanwhile, the AIADMK took to ‘X’ to strongly defend Palaniswami.
Those who could not win in their own districts have “unleashed a bag of lies,” it said on its official handle.
“Was highlighting rumours in the media about an alliance with DMK your plan. If that be the case, there are reports that you three (Velumani, Shanmugam and C Vijayabaskar) are pleading for minister posts with TVK. Do you accept them,” it asked.
They were not authorised to take decisions on alliances, it added.
The 1,34,25,260 votes that the party received in the polls was for the AIADMK, “for our alliance, for Two Leaves, for the peoples’ CM called Edappadiar,” it added.
It said Palaniswami painstakingly managed the party and that the workers were with him only. AIADMK was not a party of a few MLAs but one built on cadre strength.
“They have now decided (to be with Palaniswami),” it claimed.
