OPS asserts right to use AIADMK name, seal and address

Chennai: Deputy Leader of the Opposition, O Panneerselvam, asserted his right to use the AIADMK’s name, seal and address, claiming to have been the lawfully elected coordinator of the party, treasurer and primary member and accused Leader of the Opposition Edapaddi K Palaniswai of masquerading as interim general secretary without any authority.

In a reply to a legal notice, Panneerselvam’s lawyers said Palaniswami’s election as interim secretary was not legal as the General Council on July 11, in which the election had taken place, itself was invalid and ‘under challenge in pending judicial proceedings.’

Palaniswami’s lawyers had issued the notice on December 20 after the Panneerselvam faction held at meeting at the YMCA Kalyana Mandapam at Ritherdon Road, Vepery, objecting to the announcement for the meeting made through a letterhead of the AIADMK with the address of the headquarters.

In their reply on Monday, Panneerselvam’s lawyers said that their client was ‘validly functioning as the coordinator and treasurer of the AIADMK’ and that he was elected as coordinator by the entire primary membership of the party, which had been intimated to the Election Commission of India.

Describing Palaniswami as ‘an unauthorised person who is desperate to engineer a hostile takeover of the party,’ the notice said Palaniswami’s ‘attempt to re-create and confer on himself the post of interim general secretary is nothing short of an affront to the eternal General Secretary of the Party.’