The faction led by senior All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) legislators C Ve Shanmugam and SP Velumani on Tuesday extended their support to the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government, ending days of speculation about a possible rift within the party.
Speaking ahead of the second day of Assembly proceedings on Tuesday, Shanmugam told reporters that he would call state Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay and extend his support to TVK later in the day.
On April 23, the National Democratic Alliance led by DMK and AIADMK lost to TVK. AIADMK won 47 seats while TVK won 108 seats. TVK had the support of the Left, Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) to form the government.
Shanmugam, who did not take questions from the media, said the decision was taken with the aim of rejuvenating the party, which lost successively in the 2021 Lok Sabha elections, 2024 Lok Sabha elections and 2026 Lok Sabha elections.
While Shanmugam 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 learned that about 25-27 MLAs are keen to support TVK, and about 22-24 are with the Palaniswami faction.
Claiming that the AIADMK is not in any kind of alliance anymore, party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami told them that he wants to form a government with the support of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Shanmugam said.
Commenting on this, Shanmugam said: “They (the AIADMK Edappadi K Palaniswam faction) proposed an AIADMK government with the support of the DMK. When we heard about it, we were shocked. We told him that this is against the founding principles of the AIADMK.”
Read also: AIADMK faction supports Vijay’s TVK after row with EPS: ‘We accept people’s mandate’
“Because the AIADMK was established to uproot the DMK, to eliminate the evil power of the DMK in Tamil Nadu. This is the only main objective of the AIADMK founded by Dr. MGR which was saved and protected by Amma (late J Jayalalithaa). But now some suggestions are being put forward which are against the basic principle of our party. We are against this proposal and in our party legislative meeting we said that it is in our party interest to agree with the DMK and if we join, the DMK will be eliminated,” he said. AIADMK.”
“We have been bitter rivals for over 53 years and how is that possible. We opposed the proposal in our party’s legislative meeting and passed a resolution against it. We also elected SP Velumani as the leader of the party in the legislative council and a resolution was also passed to accept the people’s mandate,” he said.
“The mandate is specifically for Vijay to become the Prime Minister. This is the most important and important thing we should understand. The people’s mandate is for Vijay to become the Prime Minister. So, we respect the people’s mandate,” he said. He said.
Referring to the party facing defeat in the recently concluded elections, Shanmugam said: “Not only in this election, but also in the previous elections, we faced defeat. Therefore, we have decided to request our General Secretary to convene a general council meeting to discuss the reasons for the defeat and take corrective measures in the interest of the party.”
He added: “We expect that the Secretary-General will call for a meeting of the General Council.”
Over the past 10 days, speculation has been rife in the AIADMK camp about a possible split following its poor performance in the Assembly elections. While a section headed by Shanmugam 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 the Assembly elections, was elected as Assembly Speaker unanimously as there was no other candidate.
TVK’s chief coordinator and senior party member KA Sengottaiyan along with Leader of Opposition (LoP) Udhayanidhi Stalin guided him to the Speaker’s chair as part of the Assembly proceedings after his election.
He had submitted his nomination papers to Assembly Secretary K Srinivasan on May 11 for the post of Speaker.
Soon after his election, Prabhakar held the election for the post of Deputy Speaker and informed the House that TVK MLA from Thuriyur M Ravisankar would be the Deputy Speaker. Prabhakar said his nomination was suggested by Sengottaiyan and he was elected unopposed.
