AIADMK’s rebel camp in no mood to seek early convening of general council

The rebel camp in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) appears to be in no mood to seek the early convening of the general council.

Even though the camp’s prominent face C.Ve. Shanmugam, a few days ago, called for an early meeting of the general council, a key leader said: “For the time being, all our focus is on getting the issue of the legislature party resolved at the earliest.”

The group, led by party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, and the rebel camp have given petitions to Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar against each other about the violation of “whip” issued by them.

On the day of adoption of the trust motion moved by the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), the rebel camp, numbering 25 legislators, favoured the government while Mr. Palaniswami’s group, with 22 MLAs, voted against the motion.

The leader adds that his camp would like to wait for a few weeks for Mr. Palaniswami to respond to the issues raised by them. The rebel camp is only “demanding” that reasons for successive electoral setbacks be analysed threadbare. As per rule 19 (vii), if one-fifths of members of the general council — approximately 500 members — request the general secretary to hold a meeting of the council, the latter has to do it in 30 days.

Meanwhile, sections of the media reported that Mr. Palaniswami had advised several functionaries and members of the general council not to lend their support for the call on holding the general council. Asked whether the rebel camp would join the TVK regime, its representative replies in the affirmative and expects the ruling party to accommodate “more than five representatives” of the camp in the Cabinet.