Tamil Nadu: Amid confusion over CM face, AIADMK MLAs to meet in Chennai on October 6

Ahead of the announcement of the CM candidate, Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK has called all its MLAs to Chennai on October 6. On the 7th, the party after much talks will be announcing who will be the chief ministerial candidate for the party.

This announcement comes at a critical time when several ministers have been holding meetings with the Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam in the last few days.

Ever since the party held its executive committee meeting on September 28, several leaders in the AIADMK have been speaking with the deputy chief minister O Pannerselvam after he had skipped the important review meeting that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had conducted with district collectors regarding COVID-19. 

Unlike every other time where O Panneerselvam, attended these meetings, presided by CM EPS at the secretariat, he chose to stay back at his residence on Tuesday. While CM EPS was conducting the review meeting at the secretariat, OPS was having discussions with KP Munuswamy, R. Vaithilingam, and PH Manoj Pandian, members close to OPS.

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The timing of this closed-door meeting between OPS and his close aides comes at a crucial time when there have been heated arguments taking place between OPS and EPS supporters who want their respective leaders to be chosen the CM candidate for the party. The executive meeting that took place on Monday, September 28, as well as two weeks earlier, saw cadres from EPS and OPS faction shouting slogans praising them.

According to sources within the party, the discussions on Monday focused on strong arguments put forth by OPS who said that he (OPS) had been chosen by ‘Amma’ (Former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa) twice whereas EPS had been chosen by VK Sasikala, the former aide of J Jayalalithaa and the party’s former general secretary. 

OPS has been gunning for the formation of the 11-member steering committee to be former for the party, a move that according to EPS, would only add confusion and chaos in a party like AIADMK which had predominantly been a single-leader run party since it’s formation. In fact, this 11-member steering committee was one of the points of convergence between the two camps at the time of reconciliation three years ago, in 2017.

The rift that had been going on for quite some time, came out in the open following a few of the senior ministers including SP Velumani, KA Sengottaiyan, CV Shanmugam, and D Jayakumar engaged in a series of discussions alternating between Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.

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