A meeting of headquarters’ office-bearers of the AIADMK, called by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly and party ‘headquarters secretary’ Edappadi K. Palaniswami in Chennai on Monday, decided that the general council (GC) would meet on July 11, as announced at the last week’s meeting.
The agenda for the meeting would be sent through post to members of the GC, D. Jayakumar, organisation secretary and former Minister, told reporters, after the office-bearers held deliberations for nearly 90 minutes.
As for the validity of the day’s meeting, a point of which was raised by the party’s coordinator O. Panneerselvam, the organisation secretary relied on the rule 20A (vii) of the party’s bylaws which stated that in the event of coordinator and co-coordinator getting relieved or till new incumbents for the two posts assumed charge, the office-bearers, nominated by the previous coordinator and co-coordinator, would remain in office and continue to function.
Mr. Panneerselvam, deputy coordinator R. Vaithilingam and steering committee members Manoj Pandian and J.C.D. Prabhakar, were conspicuous by their absence.
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Mr. Jayakumar went on to say that as the posts of coordinator, co-coordinator and deputy coordinators “ceased to exist”, the office-bearers, as per rules of the by-laws, had requested Mr. Palaniswami, in his capacity as the headquarters’ secretary, to hold a meeting under the chairmanship of Tamilmagan Hussain. This was why the day’s event took place. He claimed that of 74 members, 65 had turned up and four persons, including former Ministers Panruti S. Ramachandran and Dindigul C Sreenivasan had expressed their inability to participate in the meeting due to reasons such as indisposition.
Two other participants said there was no discussion on any disciplinary action to be initiated against Mr. Panneerselvam or his supporters. Mr. Palaniswami confined himself to explaining the reasons for holding the day’s meeting, citing the relevant rules. Asked whether there was any change in the venue of the general council, a senior office-bearer replied that this would be known only on receipt of the invitation and the agenda for the meeting.
Commenting on the discussion that took place at the party headquarters, former MLA and AIADMK spokesperson Kovai K. Selvaraj contended as the meeting itself was “invalid”, it could not adopt any resolution. Besides, he maintained that the actual number of participants in the day’s event was much less than what was claimed by Mr. Jayakumar.
Earlier, as the meeting was in progress, the image of Mr. Panneerselvam on a hoarding kept at the party headquarters was cut and removed. When Mr. Palaniswami arrived at the party headquarters, slogans were raised in his support.
