AIADMK gears up for internal polls

CHENNAI: The AIADMK is expected to make an announcement soon to hold its massive organisational elections which will go on for the next six months and may again bring to the fore the internal power struggle between party coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami.
The elections last took place in 2014 and former chief minister and party supremo J Jayalalithaa was elected unopposed as its general secretary for the seventh time in a row after she took over the AIADMK reins in 1988.
Citing the pandemic, the party had earlier sought time from the election commission to hold the polls, since elections should be held once in five years. The leadership told the recently-held district secretaries and headquarters office-bearers meeting that they should get ready for the organisational polls. “The announcement is expected in a week. It will revitalize the party’s grassroot with elections being notified for the office-bearers at the branch, union, town, corporation and district level. Each unit will get nine members,” said a leader. The election comes close on the heels of V K Sasikala's cadre outreach programme through telephone calls, asserting her political comeback to set right the party and her plans of district-wise visit to pep up morale of supporters.
Sensing trouble, the party amended bylaws as early as in 2019, making clear that those who wanted to contest for the posts of coordinator and joint coordinator should have been members of the party for five years without any break.
Those who quit the party on their own volition or removed from the party by the coordinator and joint coordinator for disciplinary action, will cease to be party members. “She says she will reclaim the party out of desperation. But the present AIADMK setup will continue,” said a leader and a close associate of Panneerselvam. There is also a growing demand for single leadership among OPS supporters.
While the post of erstwhile general secretary was elected by the cadres, the amended bylaw allows the general council, the supreme body, to elect coordinator and joint coordinator. The secretaries of unions, municipal towns, districts, as well as the secretaries of the state units are members of the general council by virtue of their offices. “The organisational elections will be held for these posts in the districts, and district secretaries have a say in deciding the names this time unlike a list sent by ‘the garden’ (Jayalalithaa’s Poes Garden residence in Chennai) earlier. The dual leadership will evolve plans to get their supporters to the fold in whatever way possible,” said a headquarters functionary. As per the amended bylaws, the coordinator and co-coordinator can nominate a maximum of 100 members to the general council.