The Madras High Court on Wednesday cancelled a general council meeting held by the AIADMK on July 11. The decision came after former Chief Minister O Paneerselvam had expressed his disbelief in the legality and violation of bylaws in convening the General Council meeting and urged for terminating the Coordinator/Joint Coordinator posts to elect Edappadi Palaniswami as interim general secretary.
The court ruling is a huge step marker in state politics as it comes amid a bitter tussle between Mr Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam over the control of the party, which is continuously facing leadership issues after the death of Jayalalithaa in 2016.
Ahead of Mr Palaniswami’s appointment, the party was under joint leadership, with Mr Panneerselvam as coordinator and Mr Palaniswami as his deputy.
The court has now ordered a status quo as of June 23, on the matter of the party leadership. Justice G Jayachandran of Madras High Court has pronounced orders on petitions of O Paneerselvam against the General Council meeting of AIADMK.
The judge underlined that the coordinator and the joint coordinator should have only headed the GC meeting. He also advised the nomination of an observer to conduct the meeting.
The court was giving orders on the civil suits registered by O Panneerselvam and GC member Vairamuthu, today.
Afterwards, the bench appearing for Panneerselvam mentioned that the court had announced the Coordinator and Joint Coordinator posts, held by OPS and Palaniswami, respectively earlier, “had not lapsed”.
The June 23 GC meet, headed jointly by the two leaders earlier, had declared that the one and only demand of the GC members is to get into a system of a single leadership for the party, favouring Palaniswami, also known as EPS.
Soon after the decision by the HC supporters of Pannneerselvam celebrated the HC order by bursting crackers outside his residence in Chennai.
(With inputs from Agencies)