Chennai, July 19 (FN Agency) Days after former Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam (OPS)was expelled from the party for anti-party activities, senior AIADMK leader andformer Minister R.B.Udhayakumar was unanimously elected as the Deputy Leaderof the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.Udhayakumar was elected in place of OPS, who was expelled from the party atthe July 11 General Council meeting for filing petitions with the High Court andthe Police seeking to stall the meeting opposing the unitary leadership headedby Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS), who was elected as the interim GeneralSecretary of the party, reverting back to the single leadership days of Partyfounder MGR and J.Jayalalithaa. Another former Minister Agri S.S.Krishnamurthy was elected as the DeputySecretary in the Assembly.A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of AIADMK MLAs held at a starhotel on July 17, Palaniswami, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly, said in a statement here today.A letter announcing the election of Udhayakumar and Krishnamurthy was handedover to Assembly Speaker M.Appavu at the State Secretariat.
Ever since the demand for restoration of single leadership headed by Palaniswami,who commanded the support of more than 95 per cent of the General Council andExecutive Committee members cropped up, OPS had been opposing it and favoured continuance of the dual leadership led by him as Coordinator and EPS as co-coordinator. However, in the June 23 General Council meet, the decision taken at the December 2021EC meeting electing Coordinator and Co-coordinator through a single vote, was not ratifiedand the EPS camp said both the posts ceased to exist.After being hopelessly outnumbered and booed by the General Council members, whotermed OPS as a betrayer, the former Coordinator walked out of the June 23 meeting ina huff, in which another GC meeting was announced to be convened on July 11 by partypresidium chairman Tamil Magan Hussain in deference to the wishes expressed by morethan 2,900 GC members in the form of a written representation and by Party Headquarters Organisation Secretary EPS. Attempts by OPS to stall the meeting by moving the High Court and Supreme Courtwent in vain, and the meeting was held as scheduled after getting the Court’s nodand EPS was elected as the interim General Secretary and also expelled OPS fromthe primary membership of the party and from the post of Treasurer and appointedformer Minister Dindigul C.Sreenivasan for the post.On that day violence broke out in the party office in the city and supporters of EPSand EPS clashed with each other resulting in injuries to several people, after OPSand his supporters barged into the premises by breaking open the locks, stageda sit in dharna and took away some key documents with him.
Following the clashes the party office was sealed by the Revenue authorities andboth the factions have moved the High Court seeking to remove the seal in the partyoffice. However, OPS, putting up a brave face, claimed that the decision taken at the meetingexpelling him from the party was not valid and that he continued as the Coordinator ofthe party. Apart from challenging the decisions taken at the July 11 meeting in the Supreme Courtand before the Election Commission of India, OPS also dashed off a letter to the AssemblySpeaker stating that no alterations should be made in the seating arrangements as hestill continued as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.Responding to a query from the media, Appavu confirmed receipt of a letter from OPSand said the matter was under his consideration. He also said he would take a decisionas per law.In the meanwhile, EPS filed a caveat in the Apex Court contending that no orders shouldbe passed without hearing his views on the petition filed by the EPS.