AIADMK by-laws get nod from EC

CHENNAI: The Election commission (EC) has approved the amended by-laws for the AIADMK, led by Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam, by publishing the party’s new constitution on its website on Saturday. The party is set to conduct internal elections to elect office bearers.

When the erstwhile factions of the AIADMK led by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam merged last year, they revised the party’s by-laws in a general council meeting in September 2017.

At the meet, they removed the post of the general secretary, held by their deceased leader and former CM J Jayalalithaa and created posts of the coordinator and joint coordinator to lead the party. According to sources in the AIADMK, despite Palaniswami and Panneerselvam having been elected to the new posts in the same meeting, a fresh election is mandatory.

OS Manian, minister for textiles and handlooms and a senior functionary of the AIADMK said, “As per our party by-laws we have to conduct the inter-party organisation election once in five years. Since the EC approved the amended by-laws now, we will complete the membership drive within six months. After issuing the membership cards to our cadres, we will conduct the elections to select[functionaries] from grass roots level panchayat secretaries to the topmost coordinators and joint coordinators.”

Responding to the latest development, P Vetrivel, former MLA and a loyalist of expelled party leader TTV Dhinakaran said, “As we had filed several cases against the general council meeting and the decisions taken in it by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, we will challenge it in both Madras high court and Delhi high court.”

Meanwhile, KC Palanisamy, a former MP and part of a rebel AIADMK faction pointed out that the commission’s approval is questionable. “As the EC approved the amendment without hearing the concerns of the 1.5 crore cadres of AIADMK, I will challenge this in a legal way” he said.