General Council meeting of AIADMK set to take place today in Chennai

Chennai: The General Council meeting of Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition AIADMK is set to take place today in Chennai. However, a Madras High Court division bench in its urgent hearing early this morning said only the 23 draft resolutions agreed to be included in the agenda earlier can be passed in the meeting. It said any new resolutions can be discussed but not passed.

The division bench consisting of Justices Duraisamy and Sundar Mohan gave the interim order while hearing an appeal against a single judge bench decision last night. The single judge bench led by Justice Krishnan Ramaswamy last night decided not to restrain the party general body meeting from happening, which also said no conditions on the type of resolutions need to be imposed at this stage.

The twenty three resolutions were agreed upon by both the factions of the party led by its coordinator O.Panneerselvam and co-coordinator Edappadi Palaniswamy. There were reports that a new resolution would be brought today seeking to bring back the unitary leadership structure



in the party, leading to a series of litigations against today's meeting by the supporters of Mr O.Panneerselvam.

Mr O.Panneerselvam demands that the present dual leadership system should continue, while the Edappadi Palaniswamy camp insists that they are for a single leadership.  

The general council had in September 2017 removed the post of General Secretary, saying it is to be adorned eternally by the party’s late leader J.Jayalalithaa. In the aftermath of Ms Jayalalithaa’s demise in December 2016, Mr Edappadi Palaniswamy and Mr O.Panneerselvam parted ways, leading to a vertical split in the party. The 2017 resolution in the council was regarded as a compromise formula to merge their two factions, by making both of them its leaders. 

However, of late, voices are growing in the party to bring it under a unitary leadership to safeguard its position as a strong party. It led to the series of litigations before conducting today's meeting