TN CM, OPS lead AIADMK founding day celebrations

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam today led their supporters in celebrating the 46th founding day of the AIADMK.

Celebrations were held at the AIADMK headquarters here, where scores of functionaries and supporters converged under Panneerselvam, the party-coordinator, and joint-coordinator Palaniswami.

The rival TTV Dhinakaran camp, for its part, has announced that it will conduct a series of public meetings to mark the occasion.

Palaniswami and Panneerselvam garlanded a statue of party founder M G Ramachandran, and paid floral tributes to a portrait of J Jayalalithaa, two party heavyweights who were also state chief ministers, a release containing the names of both camps, AIADMK (Amma) and Puratchi Thalaivi Amma, said.
 

The two leaders also unfurled the party flag.

Palaniswami heads the Amma camp while Panneerselvam is the leader of Puratchi Thalaivi Amma.

The two factions had formally merged on August 22.

Panneerselvam, then chief minister, had revolted against deposed party leader VK Sasikala in February this year, alleging he was forced to make way for her elevation to the state's top post.

Following months of bitter spat, the factions patched up in August, even as then deputy general secretary of the party, TTV Dhinakaran, was sidelined.

A general council of the party on September 12, post the merger, had adopted a resolution to sack Sasikala as the AIADMK's interim general secretary, besides deciding to annul all appointments made by her.

She had, among others, appointed Dhinakaran as her deputy before going to a Bengaluru jail in connection with the Rs 66.6-crore disproportionate assets case.

She was earlier appointed the party's interim general secretary in December 2016, following the demise of her predecessor Jayalalithaa that month.

Meanwhile, the Dhinakaran camp has announced holding a series of public meetings today, and then again from October 20 to 26, under its senior functionaries, including some of the disqualified MLAs.

A charismatic actor, Ramachandran floated the AIADMK in 1972, following his expulsion from the DMK in the wake of differences with its chief M Karunanidhi.