Why AIADMK general council meet has added confusion to the air
The AIADMK finally held the general council - the supreme body of AIADMK - meeting in Vanagaram, Chennai on Tuesday (September 12), but left things far from settled. The odd part was that the meeting was called without the general secretary's consent, which turned into a dispute that finally reached the Madras High Court. Though the court posted the matter for further hearing to October 24, the party went ahead with the meet. This raises questions on the legal standing of the resolutions passed.
Chief minister Edapadi K Palanisamy and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam (again questions remain why Tamil Nadu needs a deputy CM) were the stars of the council, while Presidium chairman Madhusudhanan headed the meeting.
A total of 12 resolutions were passed, of which four are crucial.
Confusion 1 - Make general secretary position permanent
The general council was reportedly so in shock over the loss of Jayalalithaa that they've decided to make her the permanent general secretary of the party and thereby destroy the hopes of anyone else wishing to become the supreme leader.
The question which arises here is why did they take nine months to realise that no one can replace Jayalalithaa as general secretary after the same general council, in December 2016, chose VK Sasikala as the interim general secretary and the party mouthpiece shared how each minister fell to her feet to accept the post.
Confusion 2 - Remove Sasikala as GS but not from party
The resolution introduced by member of Parliament, R Vaithilingam, states that Sasikala, who was chosen as interim general secretary on December 2016, has been removed from the post. This resolution was considered very important as a sentiment was created outside the council hall that Sasikala was removed from the party as part of OPS' dharamyudh (holy war). However, she was only removed from the interim general secretary's position and no further explanation was given.
Deputy chief minister, OPS, who had demanded her eviction from the party didn't appear too bothered, leaving one to wonder if his dharamyudh got compromised.
Confusion 3 - Corner TTV Dinakaran
The third crucial resolution was over TTV Dinakaran and his removal and appointments of party office-bearers. The resolution copy shows that the 12 resolutions were brought forward by the office-bearers whom TTV sacked over the past two weeks. Resolution number 9 states that Dinakaran, who was neither appointed according to the party laws, nor holds any post in the party, has no right to remove or appoint anybody as office-bearer.
The step was apparently taken to resolve the problem of districts having two party secretaries, a politically lucrative post that has led to clashes among the cadres.
Confusion 4 - Have two leaders in one party
But the most confusing of the lot was resolution number 10 according to which, OPS was appointed coordinator and Edappadi K Palaniswami assistant coordinator and the power of the general secretary vis-à-vis appointing, removing office-bearers, bank transactions and legal affairs would require the signatures of the duo. So the question now is what happened to the demand that the party and the government should be in the single hand. No explanation given.
Bemuse the cadres, people and ECI
Here are the other confusions created by the general council meet.
When S Vetrivel, an MLA from the Dinakaran faction, went to court to stay the general council, EPS-OPS faction reportedly argued that the general council was called by the AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) and AIADMK (Amma) factions and not AIADMK.
This was also made evident by the title mentioned on the resolution copy which only carried the factions' names and not of AIADMK. So the questions is that when AIADMK general council elected Sasikala as general secretary, how can leaders of two split factions remove her when the case is pending with Election Commission of India.
Of the two factions, AIADMK Amma was headed by TTV Dinakaran. As per the Election Commission this means only Dinakaran has the right to take decisions on behalf of the faction.
With the meeting taking place amid so much confusion, it is evident that the move was nothing but an anxiety-induced gimmick to garner votes in the upcoming local body elections.