The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Pannerselvam on Friday attended events together, organised to commemorate Gandhi Jayanthi and the death anniversary of former TN Chief Minister Kamarajar, amidst a rift in the party. Four days after their disagreement, the two leaders came face to face for the first time in choosing AIADMK’s chief ministerial candidate, but they reportedly did not have any conversation.
On Friday, CM Edappadi Palaniswami, Deputy CM O Pannerselvam and Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit paid floral tribute to the Gandhi statue and attended the event organised to pay tribute to the former CM Kamarajar on his death anniversary.
After four days, the Deputy Chief Minister was seen on Friday along with the Chief Minister. Earlier, AIADMK sources said that the Deputy Chief Minister gave a series of options to the Chief Minister, and the Deputy Chief Minister even dropped his demand for the Chief Minister post but instead urged to give him the General Secretary post of the party which was previously held by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and former CM MG Ramachandran.
The AIADMK executive committee held on Monday saw heated arguments between Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister Pannerselvam. Following this, the AIADMK said that the Chief Ministerial candidate of the party will be announced on October 7. After the announcement, the party was conducting parleys with the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.
The Deputy Chief Minister skipped the meeting organised by Greater Chennai Corporation and the COVID-19 review meeting presided over by the Chief Minister.
The Chennai Corporation first released an invitation with the CM and the Deputy CM's name on the cards. However, later the Deputy CM’s name was removed sparking a controversy.
Meanwhile, the AIADMK also ordered all the ruling party MLAs to be present in Chennai on October 6 ahead of the executive committee meeting. However, the post was later removed from the AIADMK twitter handle.