E Palaniswami appoints two Deputy General Secretaries of AIADMK

AIADMK top leader K Palaniswami on Wednesday, July 13, announced the appointment of two senior leaders as deputy general secretaries of the party. Announcing the appointments of various functionaries for the first time after being elected as AIADMK's interim general secretary, he urged the party workers to extend their cooperation to the new functionaries.

In a party statement, he announced the appointment of senior leaders and former ministers KP Munusamy and Natham R Viswanathan as deputy general secretaries. Further, senior leader C Ponnaiyan will head a forum named after party founder, the late chief minister M G Ramachandran (MGR). Ex-minister and Coimbatore strongman S P Velumani is the Headquarters Secretary, a post previously held by Palaniswami.

A number of other leaders, including former ministers Sellur K Raju, C Ve Shanmugam and R Kamaraj and former Speaker P Dhanapal were made Organisation Secretaries. Palaniswami was elected as the party's interim general secretary by the AIADMK general council on Monday. The general council had also passed a resolution saying that the elections to the post of the general secretary will be held within four months and that the general secretary will appoint deputy general secretaries as well. The party shifted back to a single leadership system, effectively removing O Panneerselvam from any position of power. The AIADMK also moved a special resolution at the meeting to remove OPS from the party.  

Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu police have provided security to residents of EPS and OPS, as both have claimed to operate the bank accounts of the AIADMK. Panneerselvam, who was also the treasurer of the party, was removed and Dindigul C. Sreenivasan was appointed in his place. OPS shot off a letter to the manager of Karur Vysya Bank, Mylapore branch, where the party accounts were held, and said that he was the party treasurer and the bank must not allow anyone else to operate the account. He also said that he had already challenged the posting of Palaniswami as the interim general secretary before the Election Commission of India as well as in Madras High Court. It is to be noted that the newly appointed party treasurer Dindigul C Sreenivasan also approached the bank for operating the account.