Former chief minister O Panneerselvam and members of two other factions of AIADMK today travelled by the same flight to Tiruchirapalli from here and held brief discussions at the airport, sparking speculations about possible merger but the former dismissed it as 'accidental'.
AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) leader Panneerselvam, Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar of the camp led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami, and Senthil Balaji, a loyalist of 'sidelined' party deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran, were seen talking to each other in the departure lounge.
Asked about the meeting, Panneerselvam later said, "it just occurred accidentally".
"We did not discuss about the merger (of factions)", he told reporters at Tiruchirapalli airport.
He spoke about issues like acute water shortage and other problems (facing public), Panneerselvam, who has revolted against jailed party chief V K Sasikala and her deputy Dhinakaran, said.
Though the Palaniswami and Panneerselvam camp had initiated steps for discussing modalities of merger, the latter had disbanded a committed formed for this purpose saying their main demand was ouster of Sasikala and Dhinakaran from the party.
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