CHENNAI, DEC 25     :     The Executive Committee and the General Council meetingof the main Opposition AIADMK will be held here on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 EC and General Council members will be attending the key meetingof the party to be held at a marriage hall at suburban Vaanagaram, the usual venuewhere such meetings are being held. even during the leadership of former Cief MnsterJ.Jayalalithaa.

This is the first EC and General Council meeting to be held after the election of Leaderof the Opposition in the State Assembly Edappadi K. Palaniswami as general secretaryof the AIADMK in March this year.

On March 28 this year, moments after the Madras High Court dismissed the interimpleas filed by former AIADMK coordinator O. Panneerselvam and a few of hissupporters against the resolutions of the July 11, 2022 general council meeting andthe consequent general secretary election, Mr Palaniswami–who was elected asGeneral Secretary and results with held due to litigation–was formally declared electedas the party’s general secretary.

At the AIADMK headquarters, party election commissioners Pollachi V. JayaramaanNathaR.Viswanathan handed over the letter of appointment to him. Till thatdate, Mr.Palaniswami had functioned as the interim general secretary.

A month later, the Election Commission also recognised Mr. Palaniswami as thegeneral secretary of the party and approved the changes made in the party bylaws,subject to any court direction.

It may be recalled that the July 11, 2022 meet of the AIADMK general council, theparty’s highest decision-making body, had expelled Mr.Panneerselvam and his aidesfor alleged anti-party activities in the wake of the leadership tussle involving himand Mr Palaniswami.

Mr Palaniswami, the Salem strongman, wielded support from a majority of theParty district secretaries, leaders and functionaries and emerged as the undisputed’single leader’ of the party which previously had a dual leadership with Pannnerselvamand Mr. Palaniswami as the coordinator and joint coordinator, respectively.

Only earlier this week, the High Court rejected a plea by former interim generalsecretary of the party, V.K. Sasikala–who was also subsequently expelled fromthe party along with her nephew TTV Dhinakaran wo was made Deputy GeneralSecretary by her just before leaving for a Bengaluru prison in February 2017 afterher conviction in a DA case– seeking to declare that she remained in the postsince her appointment to the post on December 29, 2016.

Tomorrow’s meeting is being held ahead of the Lok Sabha polls due in 4-5 monthstime.
The meeting is expected to discuss the strategy to be adopted for the upcomingLok Sabha polls and wil lbe chaired by AIADMK Presidium Chairman TamilmagaHussain.

At the last general council on July 11, 2022, a total of 2,460 members out of 2,66attended.
This is also the first top meeting of the party after Mr.Palaniswami, had in September,made a sudden announcement that AIADMK was snapping its four-year-old ties withthe BJP, and also quit the National Democratic Alliance.

It is under these circumstances that the general council is going to have its meetingwhich will extensively deliberate on the party’s preparations, strategy and prospectsfor the Lok Sabha election, slated for April-May next year.

Ever since the demise of Ms Jayalalithaa in December 2016, the AIADMK had sufferedreversals in three successive elections starting from the 2019 Lok Sabh polls, 2021Assembly polls and the elections to Urban and rural Local bodies.

With the AIADMK time and again reiterating that there was no question of reviving itsties with the Saffron party, the meeting is expected to authorise Mr Palaniswami todecide the party’s strategy for the polls, including forging alliances with like-mindedparties or to go it alone.(UNI)
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