Deposed AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam on Monday continued with his spree of ‘appointments’ by making R. Vaithilingam the co-coordinator of his group, which he called the AIADMK.
In a statement, he also said Alangulam legislator P.H. Manoj Pandian, former Agriculture Minister K.P. Krishnan and former Villivakkam legislator J.C.D. Prabhakar had been appointed deputy coordinators.
In another statement, Mr. Panneerselvam said 10 functionaries, including nine district secretaries, had been ‘expelled’ from the party.
Meanwhile, D. Jayakumar, organisation secretary of the AIADMK, denied reports in sections of the media that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had refused to meet interim general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami during his recent visit to New Delhi. He expressed the hope that the meeting would take place at a later date.
To another query, he said that during Mr. Modi’s visit to Chennai this week, Mr. Palaniswami would meet him and convey the issues concerning Tamil Nadu to him. He had no knowledge of Mr. Panneerselvam’s proposed meeting with the Prime Minister.
On Wednesday, Mr. Palaniswami would lead the party’s demonstration in front of the Chennai Collector’s office against the proposed hike in power tariff, Mr. Jayakumar added.
Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, AMMK general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran criticised the DMK government for having reportedly reduced the number of beneficiaries of old age pension and suspended the enrolment of beneficiaries under the scheme. The government was yet to implement the electoral promise of increasing the monthly pension from ₹1,000 to ₹1,500, he pointed out.
