PALANISWAMI ELECTED AIADMK LEGISLATURE PARTY LEADER, SET TO BECOME LOP
CHENNAI: Top AIADMK leader K Palaniswami was on Monday unanimously elected leader of the legislature party after about a three-hour meet here and he is all set to become the Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
The meeting of the newlyelected MLAs to elect the legislature party leader, the second within three days, reportedly saw exchanges on who should lead the party in the House with one section pitching for Palaniswami and the other for coordinator O Panneerselvam.
Eventually, the party announced in a statement that Palaniswami was elected leader of the legislature party. In a joint statement, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam said the election was unanimous.
Later, party leaders called on Tamil Nadu Assembly Secretary K Srinivasan and handed over a letter on Palaniswami’s election.
The MLAs meet on May 7 here ended without deciding on who the legislature party leader should be as the consensus building exercise did not apparently succeed. For a while, when the legislators meeting was in progress at the party headquarters, social media was abuzz claiming that another leader, former Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal’s name was being considered to overcome differences.
In view of the gathering of the MLAs, the AIADMK headquarters and the vicinity were teeming with cadres and there were some wall posters hailing Panneerselvam and asking him to ‘become’ the leader of opposition.