Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who was earlier non-committal about thealliance leader in the state for the 2021 Assembly pollsin Tiruvarur, made a ‘U’turn within hours onFriday after reachingneighbouring Thanjavurand asserted that thealliance would be led bythe AIADMK only.
Chief Minister interacting with farmers after distributing face masks to them in Tiruvarur on Friday
Thiruchirapalli:
The Chief Minister and Deputy Coordinator of AIADMK, who met the media persons in Thanjavur, said that the AIADMK only would lead the alliance in the assembly polls to be conducted next year.
“Right from the days of our party founder Puratchi Thalaivar (MGR) to Amma (J Jayalalithaa), AIADMK was only leading the alliance, irrespective of any party in the group, in all elections including the Parliamentary elections and the legislative assembly polls, and in the same vein, the AIADMK would only definitely be the leader of the alliance in the assembly elections in 2021 also”, Edappadi K Palaniswami confirmed.
While there has been a tug of war going on between the AIADMK and BJP for a few weeks on who will lead the front for the upcoming assembly polls, the Chief Minister gave a non-committed response on the issue to the media persons in Tiruvarur during his visit on Friday saying that it was too early to discuss the issue as there was more than seven months for the polls. Further he said the leader of the alliance would be decided at the time of the election.
This, however, created flutter among the party cadre that a few senior AIADMK ministers have been continuously insisting that the party would lead the alliance, while the BJP was also maintaining that it would be the alliance leader in the state for the assembly polls.
Only after the CM’s statement in Thanjavur making it clear that the AIADMK would only lead the alliance, party cadre heaved a sigh of relief.