Forests Minister Dindigul C. Srinivasan, who is a senior AIADMK leader, on Wednesday said the party backed Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami as its face for the 2021 Assembly election.
Asked about the confusion over the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate, Mr. Srinivasan said the party backed Mr. Palaniswami. “Mediapersons should wait till October 7, when both the leaders [Mr. Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam] will jointly announce the candidate,” he added.
He described the “tussle” between Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam at the party’s recent executive council meeting as an internal affair. The AIADMK, he felt, would win hands down in the next elections. On Mr. Panneerselvam’s absence from an official meeting chaired by the Chief Minister, he said the latter was fully aware of the Deputy CM’s engagements that day. “There is no issue within the party, and internal matters will be settled amicably,” he said.
Meanwhile, two Ministers came up with different versions on why Mr. Panneerselvam did not attend the meeting.
Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar on Wednesday said the pre-occupation of Mr. Panneerselvam, who is also the AIADMK coordinator, with party work was the reason for his absence at the meeting on Tuesday. Just as Mr. Panneerselvam was busy with party work, Mr. Palaniswami was looking after the affairs of the government, Mr. Jayakumar told reporters at his residence in Foreshore Estate, Chennai. As for the omission of the Deputy CM’s name from the invitation to an event concerning the Greater Chennai Corporation, the Minister said no motive should be attributed to it. He said, “Going by precedents, the name of the Hon’ble Deputy CM is carried only in respect of invitations for prominent functions organised in Chennai, but this event relates to some wards of the city.”
[However, on another invitation for the same event which did rounds on social media, Mr. Panneerselvam’s name was mentioned].
Separately, Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar, who met the Deputy CM on Tuesday, said as Mr. Panneerselvam was not feeling well, he could not make it to the meeting. “This was why I had gone to his place to meet him,” he said. As the message regarding his disposition was conveyed to the Chief Minister, the latter went ahead with the meeting.
Amid the leadership tussle, Palladam MLA Karaipudur A. Natarajan on Wednesday endorsed Mr. Palaniswami as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming polls.
After meeting Mr. Panneerselvam along with Minister K. Pandiarajan later in the day, former Villivakkam legislator J.C.D. Prabhakar termed as wrong the observations of Mr. Srinivasan on the AIADMK’s CM candidate.
Describing the Forests Minister as a “senior member who knows the history of the party”, he referred to a call jointly issued by Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam to members of the party in August, urging them to refrain from making comments on the party’s candidate for Chief Minister during the next Assembly election.