The top-level committee of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) has decided to finalise the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2021 Assembly elections by 7th October. The announcement was made by AIADMK’s deputy coordinator KP Munusamy on Monday.
The Executive Council meeting which lasted for 5 hours ended without any final decision over the party’s chief ministerial candidate. A war of words ensued between the EPS and OPS during the discussion on CM candidate.
Sources said that O. Panneerselvam is not ready to give up his chief ministerial ambition.
According to party insiders, this time the heated exchange was between the OPS and EPS, as O. Panneerselvam took a dig at the Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami saying that, “It was Jayalalithaa, who made me the chief minister thrice but Sasikala made you the chief minister and not the people”.
Retorting to it, Palaniswami said, “even you were made the CM by Sasikala and questioned whether he is not running the government efficiently and was recently appreciated by the PM for the works done by the government”.
Speaking with the media, the party spokesperson Pugalendhi said that the party high command will meet in the coming days and will decide about the CM candidate and MP Vaidhyalingam said that a good decision will be made in the interest of the party on 7th October.
Some political analysts say that the recent announcement is just to buy more time to make deliberations and negations before making any announcement regarding the CM candidate and they also point out that O. Panneerselvam has allegedly stated that he agreed to be the deputy chief minister only for the current tenure of the government.
In the 15 resolutions that were passed Monday, The AIADMK Executive Council has demanded the central government to immediately release requisite funds for the Covid prevention and other related works in the state and the executive Council has also urged the government to release the pending GST arrears which amount to the tune of 23,763.36 crores.
AIADMK has reiterated its stand on the two-language policy and has also clarified that the two-language policy will be continued to be followed in the state and AIADMK is not against any particular language and will not tolerate any attempts to impose another language in the state.
AIADMK also states that it stands by its decision to oppose NEET exams and terms that the NEET exams have snatched the medical educational opportunities of rural students and it has commercialised the Medical education.
Reacting to the recent controversy over the Committee constituted by the Ministry of Culture, it has demanded representatives from the South and importantly from Tamil Nadu should be included in the panel. AIADMK has appealed to the party cadres to stay united and ensure the victory of the party in upcoming elections.
