Chennai: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) district secretaries’ meeting on Wednesday focused solely on upcoming local body polls and made no mention of the single-leadership issue that a section of AIADMK leaders has been raising over the last few days.

Emerging out of the meeting, senior AIADMK leader R Vaithilingam and state ministers D Jayakumar and K T Rajendra Balaji said the present arrangement which gave full powers in the party to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and his deputy O Panneerselvam (OPS) will continue.

Sources attending the meeting said the party leadership did not want to discuss the contentious issue and instead, vowed to win the civic polls that are expected shortly and urged functionaries to start working for it immediately.

“The dual mode of leadership will continue to be on... there is no change in it,” said Vaithilingam, a senior leader and deputy coordinator of the party.

The AIADMK convened a meet of its seniors, MPs, MLAs and ministers, days after MLAs VV Rajan Chellappa and RT Ramachandran urged the party leadership to go in for a single leader following the party’s dismal performance in the Lok Sabha election.

Jayakumar said there was no issue or problem in respect to the question of who should lead the party.

He said “status quo” will be maintained — the chief minister and his deputy would continue to helm the AIADMK.

Downplaying the leadership issue, he said Wednesday’s meeting was a routine affair to take stock of the situation following the general election.

Asked if a pre-poll tie up with the BJP was an issue, he said it was “not an issue at all”.

Balaji said with the support of all, it was decided the present party structure of coordinator and co-coordinator would continue.

Asked if this meant the demand of Chellappa (and another MLA) had been rejected, he said the decision was taken with his support too.

To a question on general council meeting, he said such decisions will be announced by the chief minister and his deputy.

The party, in a statement, meanwhile warned of disciplinary action against functionaries who expressed their views on intra-party affairs in public.

The AIADMK said only the party's official spokespersons could talk on the organisation's stand on any issue after ascertaining the position from the leadership.

Meanwhile, wall posters by a party functionary exhorting Palaniswami to take up the post of general secretary created a flutter.

Three MLAs who had sided with TTV Dhinakaran —A Prabhu E Rathinasabhapathy and VT Kalaiselvan — were not invited for the meet.

The trio was issued notices seeking explanation by Speaker P Dhanapal over alleged anti-party activities under the anti-defection law and subsequently the notices were stayed by the Supreme Court.

(With inputs from PTI)