A complaint has also been given to the Speaker J C D Prabhakar by both the groups each claiming that they were empowered to appoint the party whip: Reports
CHENNAI: Supporters of former Ministers C V Shanmugham and S P Velumani are reaching out to members of the AIADMK’s general council (GC) in a desperate bid to convene the council to discuss the various issues faced by the party, including the electoral debacles, including the Assembly polls in which the party has been pushed to the third position losing the opportunity to nominate the Leader of the Opposition.
Since the signatures of 400 members of the 2000 strong GC would be required to put pressure on the party high command to convene the meeting, the leaders are canvassing with their supporters across the State while party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami was thwarting their attempts by entreating the GC members not to sign the petition.
Palaniswami is also working towards disqualifying all the nearly 25 MLAs who voted in favour of the ruling Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) in the vote of confidence in the Assembly. He has already given a letter to the Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar seeking action against the errant MLAs for defying the party whip.
A complaint has also been given to the Speaker J C D Prabhakar by both the groups each claiming that they were empowered to appoint the party whip. While Palaniswami claims that as general secretary of the party the power for appointing party whip was with him while the rival faction leader S P Velumani claims that it was the prerogative of the legislative party to appoint the whip.
Palaniswami had appointed Agri Krishnamurthy as the party whip, the Velumani group appointed Vijaybhaskar as the whip. Who has the power to appoint the whip and who is the AIADMK whip are questions that have to be addressed by the Speaker, who said that the decision will be taken at the appropriate time.
As the tug of war between the two factions continued, some moves were made to placate Palaniswami with a view to not let his press for action against those who defied the whip.
