Tuesday, July 18, 2023 turned out to be an important day in the political calendar of the AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami with the Madras High Court dismissing a petition against him in an alleged highway tender scam and the BJP according him importance at a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in New Delhi.
Filed by the DMK’s senior leader R.S. Bharathi in 2018, the petition sought a probe by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) into the scam. While dismissing it earlier in the day, the High Court judge, Justice N. Anand Venkatesh, held that he did not find any illegality in the preliminary inquiry of the DVAC that year in which a clean chit was given to Mr Palaniswami.
Later in the day in New Delhi, Mr Palaniswami was not only seated next to BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi but was also one of those who received Mr Modi on his arrival at the venue of the NDA meeting. The AIADMK chief was among the two leaders who seconded a resolution adopted at the meeting, declaring that the NDA would face the 2024 Lok Sabha polls under the Prime Minister’s leadership.
