AIADMK Factions Merge, Panneerselvam To Be Deputy Chief Minister
- Rival AIADMK factions merge following a power-sharing arrangement
- K Palaniswami to be the chief minister, O Panneerselvam his deputy
- Panneerselvam will also be the AIADMK coordinator, while Palaniswami will be the co-coordinator
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes merger, assures support
Over six months after a bitter split, rival AIADMK factions on Monday merged following a power-sharing arrangement under which K Palaniswami will remain the chief minister and O Panneerselvam will be his deputy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the development.
I congratulate Thiru O Panneerselvam & others who took oath today. I hope Tamil Nadu scales newer heights of progress in the years to come.
August 21, 2017Panneerselvam will also be the AIADMK coordinator, while Palaniswami will be the co-coordinator of the ruling party in Tamil Nadu. A cabinet reshuffle will take place, it was announced in Chennai after weeks of hard bargaining by the factions led by the two leaders who have questioned Sasikala's appointment as the party general secretary.
Her loyalists continued to maintain that party cadres are with Sasikala, who is in jail in a graft case, even as the fate of the sidelined leader and her nephew Dhinakaran in the party remained uncertain.
The merger will bring some relief to supporters of the AIADMK, which came to power in May 2016 and has been struggling to keep its pack together following the death of party supremo J Jayalalithaa in December last year.
The factional feud began in February after Panneerselvam revolted against Sasikala. Panneerselvam said that he was forced to resign as the chief minister and asserted that only a person desired by people and cadres should succeed him in the government and party.
Also Read: Revolts, Split, Merger: All That Happened In AIADMK Since Jayalalithaa's Death
Panneerselvam was sacked from the top party post of treasurer, marking the birth of the rebel AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) faction. Subsequently, Sasikala named Palaniswami as Legislature Party Leader as she herself had to go to Bengaluru to serve a prison sentence following her conviction in the disproportionate assets case. Palaniswami then took over as the chief minister.
In April, Tamil Nadu Cabinet gave indications of sidelining Sasikala and Dhinakaran. Palaniswami gradually emerged as leader of a faction of about 122 members of legislative assembly in the 234-member assembly. The OPS camp had nine legislators, including himself.
Palaniswami and his Cabinet colleagues took a stand against Dhinakaran for the first time after bypoll to RK Nagar bypoll constituency, represented by late Jayalalithaa, was cancelled. They were also on the same page after Dhinarakan was named in a case of trying to bribe Election Commission officials.
Further hardening the stand against Dhinakaran, an August 10 meeting chaired by Palaniswami said his appointment went against party bye-laws, setting the stage for a formal merger. Following it up, the government also announced an inquiry into Jayalalithaa's death and declared that Amma's Poes Garden residence would be taken over and turned into a memorial.
By conceding these key demands of the Panneerselvam camp, the process of unification got a fresh impetus and following several rounds of deliberations, the merger came through.
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