With the Madras High Court restraining AIADMK’s former coordinator O. Panneerselvam from associating himself with the party in any form, his camp is examining different options to face the situation.
For the time being, the camp has approached the Court with an appeal, which will be heard on Friday (November 9). Senior leaders emphasise that the legal battle in one forum or the other is not yet over. The camp’s propaganda secretary Va. Pugazhendi, in a letter sent to the Election Commission of India (ECI) a few days ago, referred to the ECI’s Secretary Jaydeb Lahiri’s communication to Edappadi K. Palaniswami in April, and requested the panel to prevent Mr. Palaniswami from giving the impression that he was the general secretary of the party, as the communication, according to Mr. Pugazhendi, did not mention the nomenclature of “general secretary.”
As for political options, the predominant view in the camp is to sail with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) led by T.T.V. Dhinakaran, and many other like-minded parties. Even if the High Court’s order gets reinforced in the future, the camp may like to wait till the poll schedule is out for the Lok Sabha election, after which it may approach the ECI for the allotment of a symbol.
One reason behind such a course of action is that given the fact that there are four MLAs on its side, the camp would like to avoid any disqualification proceedings if it chooses to float a party of its own immediately. Mr. Panneerselvam, till now in Singapore on a private visit, has called a meeting of senior functionaries on Thursday to discuss the implications of the court order.
Meanwhile, Mr. Palaniswami called a meeting of the party’s district secretaries and point persons at the head office in Chennai on November 21 to take stock of the progress of the formation of booth committees as part of preparations for the Lok Sabha poll.
