Edappadi K Palaniswami, popularly known as EPS, expelled party colleague and bête noire O Paneerselvam, aka OPS, for “anti-party” activities after he was elected interim general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) at a general council (GC) meeting held on Monday in the party office in Vanagaram on the outskirts of Chennai. With EPS gaining control of the AIADMK the power struggle within the party is over at least for now. EPS enjoys the support of a large number of party MLAs and district secretaries, compared to his opponent OPS, became clear in the GC meeting.
Earlier in the day, the Madras High Court on Monday allowed the AIADMK GC meeting to take place in the day. The GC had been convened by party co-ordinator EPS to be held on Monday to decide the future leadership structure of the party.
In a setback to OPS, amid fierce leadership tussle in the party, the High Court rejected the plea filed by him to stay the GC meeting, which was called by EPS to revive the post of interim general secretary and abolish the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator. In his petition, OPS had contended that only the coordinator and the joint coordinator could convene the GC meeting and that since the newly appointed Presidium Chairman had done so, the meeting was technically illegal and hence untenable.
EPS also expelled JCD Prabhakar, R Vaithilingam and PH Manoj Pandian, supporters of OPS, from the AIADMK. After throwing out the dissenters, the GC also passed 16 resolutions.
Apart from abolishing the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator, thus doing away with the dual leadership structure in the party, the GC revived the post of general secretary, which was abolished after the death of party leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2016. According to the resolution passed by the GC, anyone who wants to contest for the post of general secretary has to be a member of the party for 10 years. The candidature should be proposed by ten district secretaries and seconded by the same number of district secretaries of the party.
One of the GC resolutions sought Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour for EV Ramasamy ‘Periyar’, MG Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa. The GC also demanded protection of the rights of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Court’s ruling, supporters of the EPS and OPS factions clashed on the streets of Chennai.
The power struggle in the party began after Jayalalithaa died in 2016. Her close aide VK Sasikala became the leader of the party replacing then Chief Minister OPS. Sasikala appointed EPS as Legislative Party Leader after she was convicted by the Supreme Court in a corruption case in 2017. She also appointed her nephew TTV Dhinakaran as AIADMK deputy general secretary. Both EPS and OPS factions joined hands at the prodding of the BJP to jointly run the party, with OPS joining EPS government as his deputy chief minister.
However, both EPS and EPS fell apart after the AIADM was routed in 2022 Assembly elections and entered into a bitter rivalry, always trying to outdo each other in wresting control of the party.