ECI approves Edappadi K Palaniswami as general secretary of AIADMK

AIADMK election commissioners Natham R Viswanathan and Pollachi V Jayaraman, on March 28, declared the election of Palaniswami as the general secretary of the party.

CHENNAI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has updated the current office-bearers of many political parties after their organisational elections and the commission has also uploaded the list of office-bearers of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as submitted by Edappadi K Palaniswami.  This is considered as a further approval of Palaniswami’s leadership of the AIADMK by the ECI. 

On June 27, the Madras High Court reserved its judgment on a batch of civil appeals preferred by deposed AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam and three of his supporters, against a single’s March 28 order refusing to interfere with their expulsion from the AIADMK, as well as the resolutions passed by the AIADMK general council meeting held on July 11, 2022.  

AIADMK election commissioners Natham R Viswanathan and Pollachi V Jayaraman, on March 28, declared the election of Palaniswami as the general secretary of the party. The announcements came minutes after the Madras HC dismissed the petitions challenging the resolutions passed during the AIADMK general council meeting held on July 11, 2022.  After this, the AIADMK formally informed the ECI about the election of Palaniswami and other office bearers.  After studying them, now the commission has uploaded the documents submitted by Palaniswami on its website and this is considered as the ECI’s approval for Palaniswami.

In the letter addressed to the ECI, Palaniswami said some of the elected representatives have since deceased or have moved away to another political party or have been expelled from the party for disciplinary reasons or anti-party activities.  These posts are yet to be filled.  This shall be done in due course.

As per the document uploaded by the ECI, there are 79 headquarters office-bearers, 75 district secretaries, 375 district office-bearers, and other office-bearers at the grassroots level.  

Meanwhile, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by the BJP has convened the meeting of the alliance parties in New Delhi on July 18 and the BJP has invited its allies in Tamil Nadu including AIADMK led by Palaniswami, PMK, and TMC.  The deposed leader of the AIADMK, O Panneerselvam, at a press conference here, said he was not invited to the NDA meeting.