A day after eight AIADMK MLAs including three former ministers wanted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to convene the party’s legislators meeting, 10 MLAs met the CM at the Secretariat on Tuesday over issues from their constituencies.
While the MLAs maintained that the meeting was to discuss welfare issues, The New Indian Express reported that one MLA from Tirunelveli sought a ministerial berth stating that there is no representation for the Nadar community.
The Times of India reported that the legislators sought cabinet berths and positions. MLAs C Chandrasekaran from Senthamangalam, S Gunasekaran from Tirupur south, K V Ramalingam from Erode West , K Uma Maheswari from Vilathikulam, I S Inbadurai from Radhapuram, P Vetrivel from Perambur, B Satyanarayanan from T Nagar, M Parameswari from Manachanallur and K S Thennarasu from Erode East met the chief minister, reported TOI.
One MLA told TOI that when Sasikala became the general secretary, she had made promises. But none of them have been fulfilled.
The meeting with the CM comes days after some MLAs including actor Karunas and animal husbandry minister B Balakrishna met Sasikala at the Bengaluru prison.
KS Thenarasu of Erode East told TNIE that he met the Chief Minister with representatives from the textile industry regarding GST on textiles.
The back-to-back meetings of MLAs with the CM comes amidst calls for transparency in the party affairs. Several MLAs across the state have in the past few days held separate meetings amongst themselves. Some of them have come out in the past to claim that they were being kept in the dark regarding the workings of the party. Leaders of the EPS faction have even alleged that they are being treated like slaves by the top leaders and left out of all consultations.