Tough bargaining over AIADMK steering panel

Tough bargaining over AIADMK steering panel

Both Camps Go All Out For Best Deal

Julie.Mariappan@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  07.10.2020

The ruling AIADMK is all set to name Edappadi K Palaniswami as the chief minister candidate, and constitute a steering committee, a key demand put forth by deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam. Until Tuesday night, the OPS and EPS camps were engaged in hectic parleys to shortlist senior members for the committee who will represent the various castes, religions and regions. The talks, however, continued well into the night as the two sides wrangled over the composition of the committee. Senior leaders were, however, hopeful that all loose ends would be tied up and the announcements made as promised by AIADMK deputy coordinator K P Munusamy after the party executive committee meeting on September 28.

There was a flurry of activity at the residences of OPS and EPS on Greenways Road in Chennai on Tuesday as ministers and senior leaders held several rounds of talks. It began with deputy coordinators K P Munusamy and R Vaithilingam informing the deputy chief minister about the EPS team giving the green signal for constituting the steering committee. EPS had held a meeting with 17 ministers in his chamber at the Secretariat on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, four ministers, ministers SP Velumani, P Thangamani, D Jayakumar and R B Udayakumar visited Panneerselvam and discussed for two hours before going over to the chief minister for briefing. Sources said the powers and functions of the committee, and the selection of members were discussed threadbare. The leaders had a second round of discussion. The contention of the EPS camp is that there were too many claimants for the posts. Thangamani and Velumani, the close confidantes of EPS, however, were frontrunners.

While the names of ministers Jayakumar and Shanmugam and senior leader Natham R Viswanathan were mentioned, sources said veteran leaders Panruti S Ramachandran and J C D Prabhakar from the OPS group were in the race.

OPS arrived in Chennai on Monday night after a brief sojourn in his native Theni district. “After dilly-dallying over the steering committee, a precondition of the OPS faction for merger with the rival group in September 2017, the EPS camp conveyed its willingness to announce the formation of the committee along with the chief minister candidate on Wednesday,” said a senior leader. Initially, OPS wanted the committee to be set up first, and then announce the CM candidate. His contention was that the general council had already resolved to have a committee. “Now, both sides have decided to announce the members of the committee on Wednesday,” said the leader.

Late into the night, the OPS and EPS camps were engaged in hectic parleys to shortlist senior members for the committee who will represent the various castes, religions and regions