Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, July 11: After Edappadi Panaliswamy assumed control of the party as its interim general secretary, the former deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu O Panneerselvam was removed from all party positions on Monday.
JCD Prabhakar, R Vaithilingam, and PH Manoj Pandian, senior leaders and OPS backers, were also expelled from the AIADMK.
Notably, party leader Edappady K Palaniswami, commonly known as EPS, was promoted to acting general secretary of the AIADMK, the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu, today, ending the dual leadership paradigm.
The General Council, which has more than 2,500 members, gave EPS the authority to rule the party as a single supreme head. The AIADMK General Council eliminated the positions of Joint Coordinator and Coordinator, held by O Panneerselvam and Palaniswami respectively, citing difficulty in decision-making and unhappiness among party cadre during the meeting. The AIADMK had lost three straight elections under the dual leadership.
After receiving permission from the Madras High Court, the meeting was opened at around 9.15 am and presided over by praesidium chairman A Tamil Mahan Hussain. O Panneerselvam submitted a petition to the court asking for a postponement of the meeting set by the Edappady K. Palaniswami-led side.
The party formally decided at the conference to run organisational elections to choose the general secretary in four months. It has changed a number of rules, adding new guidelines for contending for the top party position.
One of the rules states that in order to run for office, a candidate must have 10 years of primary party membership. Following demands from members of its General Council for Panneerselvam’s expulsion from the organisation, the AIADMK also promised action against him.
At the gathering, a motion was passed calling on the government to award the “Bharat Ratna” to the late leaders J. Jayalalithaa, CN Annadurai, and Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.
