Shortly after electing Edappadi Palaniswami as the interim head of the AIADMK, the General Council of the AIADMK on Monday, July 11, passed a special resolution sacking O Panneerselvam and his supporters from primary membership of the party. In addition to OPS, his supporters Vaithilingam, Manoj Pandian and JCD Prabhakar have also been removed from the party.
Meanwhile at the AIADMK headquarters, O Panneerselvam, in turn, announced that he is sacking Edappadi Palaniswami and senior leader KP Munuswamy from the AIADMK. He told the media that the two cannot violate party bye-laws and that they do not have the power to expel him. He said that he and his supporters will also move court for justice.
O Panneerselvam had been rallying against the AIADMK’s plan to remove the dual leadership structure within the AIADMK, opposing the party’s plans to select E Palaniswami as the ‘single supreme leader’. OPS had moved the Madras High Court to stall the General Council meeting scheduled for Monday, but the High Court had disposed of his petition and allowed the meeting to go ahead as scheduled. At the meeting, the AIADMK passed resolutions doing away with the coordinator and joint-coordinator posts at the helm of the party and instead elected EPS as the interim general secretary.
At the General Council meeting, several leaders called for action against OPS, for acting against the interests of the party. Senior AIADMK leader Natham Viswanathan then said that action will be taken against OPS. He tore into Panneerselvam alleging he had a “brutal face” completely opposite to his reputation as a “calm person”.
Viswanathan, a former Minister, said that O Panneerselvam “always said one thing and acted completely against it”. Quoting the 19th century reformist saint Vallalar's verses, he said, “There should be no links whatsoever with Panneerselvam as he always hid within him what he wanted and spoke an entirely different thing to the outside world.”
At this point, the general council members shouted against Panneerselvam and demanded action against him. While Viswanathan tried to pacify them by assuring action, senior leader KP Munusamy took the mike from him.
Munusamy said: "You are members of the General Council. You demand that he (OPS) should be expelled from the party. You represent 1.5 crore party members. The representation you have made here will be reflected in a resolution and it will be moved by our (Interim) General Secretary. Please wait till then."