The only aim of him and his supporters was to re-establish the AIADMK government in the State and their support to TVK was based on the shared opposition to the DMK.
Chennai: Former Minister S P Velumani, spearheading the dissident MLAs in the AIADMK who had extended support to the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam Government during the vote of confidence on May 13, said that there was no split in the AIADMK but only differences of opinion putting an to end to all speculations over a vertical division in the party.
Velumani, who addressed the media at the office of his colleague C Ve Shanmugham in Chennai, stated categorically that Edappadi K Palaniswami, the AIADMK general secretary, was his party leader, dispelling all doubts over the dissident group’s allegiance to Palaniswami.
When more than 25 of the 47 AIADMK MLAs extended support to the TVK government defying the whip issued by Agri S S Krishnamurthy, who was appointed as party whip by Palaniswami, defiant MLAs were removed from party posts. But the rebels claimed that the whip can be appointed by only the majority of the party MLAs and that they had appointed C Vijayabaskar.
But Palaniswami stood his ground and said that the appointment of party whip was the prerogative of the party leadership and approached the Governor and the Speaker of the Assembly to take action against those who voted in favour of the TVK.
With both groups digging in their heels, it looked that the party might split even after Palaniswami extended the olive leaf but on Friday Velumani cleared the air by pledging allegiance to the general secretary and claiming that his group was not aspiring for any ministerial berths in the TVK-led government.
Referring to reports in the media that the dissidents were putting pressure on the TVK-led government to accommodate its representative in the Cabinet, Velumani said that he or Shanmugham never bargained for berths in the ministry, nor did they extended support to the TVK in lieu of money or power.
The only aim of him and his supporters was to re-establish the AIADMK government in the State and their support to TVK was based on the shared opposition to the DMK. They supported the government by following the path laid down by AIADMK’s stalwarts J Jayalalithaa and M G Ramachandran, he said.
They had also placed demands before Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on revitalizing the Amma canteens and reviving schemes like Amma pharmacies and ‘gold for brides’ that were launched by Jayalalithaa, he said.
