AIADMK leadership row: Madras High Court dismisses OPS pleas, EPS becomes gen secy

Justice Kumaresh Babu dismissed all the petitions filed by OPS and MLAs R.Vaithilingam and P.H.Manoj Pandian and JCD Prabhakaran-all OPS loyalists--over the leadership tussle in the AIADMK.

The OPS camp had moved the court challenging the July 11, 2022 GC resolutions in which OPS and his supporters were expelled from the primary membership of the party and former Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami (EPS) was unanimously elected as the Interim General Secretary.

The Court also refused to grant any interim injunction to the elections held for the post of AIADMK GS for which EPS was the only candidate to have filed the papers, clearing the decks for him to become the GS of the party.

Earlier, the Court had on March 19, while allowing holding of elections for the GS post, restrained the EPS camp not to pronounce the results on a plea filed by OPS, to pre-empt Mr Palaniswami from being declared elected unopposed as "General Secretary".

Minutes after the High Court order, AIADMK officially announced that EPS was declared elected unopposed as the General Secretary of the Party.

AIADMK Election Officers Pollachi V.Jayaraman and Natham R.Viswanathan announced the election of Mr Palaniswami as the General Secretary of the party and handed over the winning certificate to him, triggering celebrations from the jubilant party cadres.

Palaniswami, who commands the support of majority of the GC members and District Secretaries, has now become the Supreme Leader of the party as per the desire of more than one crore party cadres.

A large number of AIADMK cadres, who had thronged the party headquarters in the city, celebrated both the High Court order and EPS election as the GS by bursting crackers and distributing sweets.

In a brief chat with reporters after his election as the GS, Mr Palaniswami, thanked all the AIADMK functionaries and cadres for electing him to the post after which he visited the Jayalalithaa memorial on the Marina beach front along with senior party leaders and supporters and paid tributes to her.

However, in a swift move, Panneerselvam filed an appeal against today's Single Judge order and it would be taken up for hearing by a two-member Bench tomorrow.