AIADMK leaders under C Ve Shanmugham faction decide to support Vijay-led TVK

THe sect led by the All republic of india Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s senior legislators C Ve Shanmugam and SP Velumani on tues extended their back up to the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) authorities ending days of speculation about a possible rift within the party.Shanmugham, ahead of the second day of assembly proceedings on Tuesday, spoke to reporters that he will be calling on state chief minister C Joseph Vijay and extend his support to the TVK later in the day.On April 23, DMK and AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance lost to TVK. AIADMK won in 47 seats while TVK got 108 seats. The TVK got support of Left, Congress and the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) to form the government.Shanmugham who did not take questions from the media said the decision was taken aiming at rejuvenating the party which had lost consecutively in 2021 Assembly polls, 2024 Parliamentary polls and 2026 Assembly polls.While Shanmugham claimed that the majority of supporters in his camp decided to support TVK, he did not specify how many MLAs were with him. It is learnt that about 25-27 MLAs are keen to support the TVK, around 22-24 are with the Palaniswami faction.Claiming that the AIADMK is not in any kind of alliance anymore, Shanmugham said, the party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami told them that he wanted to form a government with the support of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).Elaborating about it, Shanmugham said, “They (AIADMK Edappadi K Palaniswam faction) proposed AIADMK government with the support of the DMK. When we heard about it, we were shocked. We told him that it is against AIADMK’s founding principles.”Also Read: AIADMK faction supports Vijay’s TVK after rift with EPS: ‘We accept people’s mandate’“Because the AIADMK was founded to uproot the DMK, to wipe out the evil force DMK in Tamil Nadu. That is the only foremost aim of the AIADMK which was founded by Dr MGR and which was saved and protected by Amma (the late J Jayalalithaa). But, now some proposal which is against the basic principle of our party is being floated. We are against that proposal and in our legislature party meeting we said it is against our party interest to align with the DMK and if we align, AIADMK will be wiped out,” he said.“We have been arch rivals for more than 53 years and how it is possible. We opposed the proposal in our legislature party meeting and passed a resolution against it. We also elected S P Velumani as a legislature party floor leader and also a resolution was passed to accept the people’s mandate”, he said.“The mandate is specifically for Vijay to become the chief minister. That is the foremost and most important thing we have to understand. The people’s mandate is Vijay to become Chief Minister. So, we respect the people’s mandate.” he said.Referring to the party facing defeat in the recently concluded election, Shanmugham said, “Not only in this election, but also in the previous elections, we faced defeat. So, we decided to ask our General Secretary to convene a General Council meeting to discuss the reasons for defeat and take corrective action in the interest of the party.”“We expect the General Secretary to convene the General Council meeting,” he added.Over the last ten days, speculations were rife in the AIADMK camp about a possible rift following its poor performance in the assembly elections. While a section headed by Shanmugham supported the concept of supporting TVK, another section of party MLAs led by Palaniswami did not support the move.Meanwhile, former AIADMK MLA, JCD Prabhakar, who joined TVK before assembly polls, was elected as speaker of the assembly unanimously as there was no other candidate.TVK chief coordinator and the party’s senior member K A Sengottaiyan along with the leader of opposition (LoP) Udhayanidhi Stalin guided him to the Speaker’s chair as part of the assembly procedure after he was elected.He had submitted his nomination papers to the Assembly secretary K Srinivasan on May 11 for the post of Speaker.Soon after he was elected, Prabhakar conducted the election for the Deputy speaker post and informed the House that TVK MLA from Thuraiyur M Ravisankar would be the Deputy Speaker. His nomination was proposed by Sengottaiyan and he was elected unopposed, Prabhakar said.