New resolutions passed in the AIADMK General Council meeting held on Monday, July 11, announced that Edappadi K Palaniswami will be the interim General Secretary of the party till elections to the post are held. With this, the previous resolution that was passed declaring the former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa as the ‘eternal General Secretary’ has been nullified.
In 2017, after her demise, the AIADMK general council had declared that J Jayalalithaa would be the ‘eternal General Secretary’ of the party. After the factions led by O Panneerselvam and E Palaniswami came together, the party declared Jayalalithaa the ‘eternal General Secretary.'
However, amid the new tussle over the leadership of the party, the AIADMK had said that the post of General Secretary, which had full powers during the times of party founder MG Ramachandran and his successor late J Jayalalithaa, would be revived by way of passing a resolution in the General Council meeting on July 11.
OPS had strongly opposed this, and had called the reverting to the post of General Secretary a ‘betrayal’ to Jayalalithaa. Saying that single leadership will be against what the General Council had decided in 2017, OPS had sought for continuation of the dual leadership of the party.
However, in its Executive Committee and General Council meeting held on Monday, the AIADMK endorsed scrapping the erstwhile top two positions of Coordinator and Joint Coordinator and brought back the General Secretary post. The party has named EPS as the interim general secretary.
Jayalalithaa had helmed the party for decades as its powerful general secretary while her close aide, VK Sasikala, was made interim general secretary for a brief period following the former's death in December 2016. Sasikala, who was later convicted and sentenced in a disproportionate assets case, was subsequently sacked from the post in 2017 by a then AIADMK GC. After this, the party came up with a new apex party structure of 'Coordinator' and 'Joint Coordinator' and Panneerselvam and Palaniswami were elected to the top two positions, respectively.
In December 2021, the party had amended its rules to strengthen such a top party leadership structure. The tweaking made it clear that election to the highest posts would be by way of a single vote and electors shall be the party's primary members. Palaniswami and Panneerselvam were elected unopposed last year.
With PTI inputs