Madurai: The district secretaries and former ministers who have been doing party politics as opposing teams in the districts all over Tamil Nadu forgot their quarrels in the General Assembly today (July 11) and stood by K. Palaniswami as one team.
In AIADMK since the time of MGR, like the Congress party, there has been factional strife in every district. But it does not know openly to the extent of fighting like the Congress party. Even when Jayalalithaa was the general secretary of the AIADMK, which was considered to be running under military restrictions, there was internal conflict in the districts between the district secretaries, former ministers and deputy responsibilities.
In this case, Jayalalithaa gave positions and power in the party and government to members of one faction while others stood aside without protesting. But the dissidents would send complaints to Jayalalithaa against the district secretaries and ministers and work inside the party against them. But during the election time, they fear Jayalalithaa and cooperate with the candidates in the election process.
In this case, after the death of Jayalalitha, AIADMK members openly clashed with the Congress party during the OPS-EPS period. The factionalism between district secretaries, former ministers and people from other sub-organisations was evident. However, since OPS-EPS lacked personality and influence in AIADMK like Jayalalithaa, action was not taken against the dissidents. Couldn’t control them. Therefore, the AIADMK lost in the by-elections, the last assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections in the constituencies where it had a chance to win.
In Madurai District Municipal Secretary and former Minister Sellur K. Raju, Suburban East District Secretary VV Rajan Chellappa, West District Secretary and former Minister RB Udayakumar are openly doing party politics. Due to their party politics, the AIADMK suffered a setback in the last assembly elections in Madurai district. However, all the three were in K. Palaniswami’s team at the state level even though they had factional conflict from the beginning.
They completely sidelined O. Panneerselvam supporters from district politics. As a result, O. Panneerselvam lost a lot of support from the administrators in Madurai district. Similarly, in Dindigul district former ministers Natham R. Viswanathan and Dindigul Srinivasan are working as arch enemies in the party. Even now, both of them are working in support of K. Palaniswami.
Similarly, in Krishnagiri district, former ministers Munuswamy and Thambithurai have never spoken to each other since Jayalalithaa’s time. To that extent both have separate circles of supporters in party politics in that district. But now both of them are leaning towards Palaniswami. Similarly, most of the former ministers and district secretaries who worked as polar opposites in the party from Kanyakumari to Chennai have gone to K. Palaniswami. Will the volunteers also go to K. Palaniswami on their way? Or will they go with him as O. Panneerselvam says? It will come to light over time.
In this regard, AIADMK executives said. In Madurai district, O. Panneerselvam had former district secretary Muthuramalingam, former MLAs Manickam, SS Saravanan, former MP Gopalakrishnan, former zone president Salalimuthu and others. But, apart from Gopalakrishnan, O. Panneerselvam did not help much. So, in desperation, Muthuramalingam moved to the DMK. Manickam has gone to BJP. SS Saravanan has come to Palaniswami’s side. MGR-era politician Saliamuthu O. Panneerselvam failed to buy a councilor ‘seat’ in the last municipal elections only because of his supporters. He was defeated in the councilor election due to infighting. Therefore, he is currently staying away from politics.
After Jayalalithaa’s demise, O. Panneerselvam was not interested in getting party posts and election seats to the executives who had stood by him without any expectations when he conducted Dharmayutham.
Also, despite getting a ‘seat’ in the election, the election expenses were not paid. At the same time, K. Palaniswami poured money into party and election expenses. K. Palaniswami helped his supporters get positions in the party. He gave voice to them in the party. Therefore, today the party executives behind him have forgotten the factional conflict between them and stand by K. Palaniswami.
This is what they said.