AIADMK factions meet speaker, seek action against rivals

Chennai: Two AIADMK factions, one led by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami and another led by former ministers S P Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam, met Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar on Thursday and sought action against MLAs of the rival group. The EPS faction said it had also submitted a complaint to Lok Bhavan against the rebel leaders. Former ministers Thalavai N Sundaram and Agri S S Krishnamurthy, who were part of EPS faction, met speaker in the morning and submitted a petition requesting him to recognise EPS as the floor leader and Thalavai Sundaram as whip. They also sought actionagainst the 25 AIADMK MLAs of the opposite faction, who cross-voted to TVK.After they left, MLAs of the rebel faction, including former ministers K P Anbazhagan, C Vijayabaskar and others met the Speaker and sought action against MLAs supporting EPS. Vijayabaskar said he was the whip and his direction to vote in support of TVK has been violated by the 22 MLAs. Former minister Natham R Viswanathan said EPS has no powers to sack him from party post. "I am the deputy general secretary and Velumani is the headquarters secretary. EPS cannot remove us," Viswanathan said.Velumani agreed that EPS was the party general secretary, but demanded that he convene a general council meeting. "He (Palaniswami) should convene the general council and bring back all those who were removed from the party," Velumani said.Former minister K P Munusamy, however, refuted the claims of Viswanathan. "Those who were involved in anti-party activities were removed and Palaniswami has powers to remove them," Munusamy said. He submitted a letter to staff at Lok Bhavan since Governor Rajendra Arlekar was not present, seeking action against rebel MLAs.EPS issued a statement saying rumours were spread to tarnish his reputation while it was the rebel faction that was betraying the party for ministerial berths. Meanwhile, tension prevailed in AIADMK offices in Pudukottai and Karur districts on Thursday after the new district secretaries appointed by EPS attempted to take charge. The supporters of former ministers M R Vijayabhaskar in Karur and C Vijayabaskar in Pudukottai from the rebel camp opposed the entry of new appointees. Once section locked the offices while the other broke open the locks and attempted to enter. Police intervened and brought the situation under control.