Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami declining to comment on deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam’s statement that the latter merged his faction with the official faction of the AIADMK and joined the council of ministers only because Prime Minister Narendra Modi requested him to do so, indicates that all is not well in the ruling party. Political observers says the situation is a pointer towards discontentment brewing up in the AIADMK.

“I’ll be able to comment only after going through the statement in full,” Palaniswami told reporters last night at Salem.

Opposition DMK and other parties are using Panneerselvam’s comments to embarrass the AIADMK and the Tamil Nadu government. D Raja, MP and CPI leader challenged Prime Minister Modi to come out with a statement denying charge that the state government is being remote-controlled by BJP.

Puducherry chief minister V Narayanasamy alleged on Monday that the BJP meddling in the affairs of Tamil Nadu government should be condemned. The timing of Panneerselvam’s statement has stirred up a hornet’s nest in the AIADMK as the party is in the process of removing district and grass root level office bearers appointed by the Sasikala-TTV Dinakaran duo.

More than 4,000 office bearers have been expelled by the merged AIADMK leadership till now. The next few weeks will see the appointment of new office bearers, who are EPS and OPS loyalists.

The faction led by Panneerselvam has expressed discontentment over the appointment since most of them belong to the Palaniswami camp.

Meanwhile, senior leader of state BJP and Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan ruled out the possibility of Modi’s role in the merger. Mr Radhakrishnan in an apparent reference to the pre-merger differences between the two camps, said, “Panneerselvam’s remarks reveal that internal problems of AIADMK are still continuing”.

Sidelined AIADMK leader and RK Nagar MLA, T T V Dinakaran hit out at Panneerselvam for his criticism of V K Sasikala, close aide of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa and her family. He said is the Prime Minister the “general secretary of the AIADMK” that Panneerselvam paid heed to his suggestion.