Chennai: At a time when cold war is believed to be going on in the AIADMK alliance about who will lead the coalition for the upcoming Assembly election, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who is also the joint coordinator of AIADMK, today said that a decision on the alliance and its head will be taken during the time of the election.
“There is still time left (to take decision on alliance). When it arrives, appropriate decision will be taken,” he told the media in Tirupur.
The AIADMK had stitched an alliance with the BJP and a few other parties including DMDK and PMK for the Lok Sabha elections last year. While there are some ripples in the AIADMK about who will be the Chief Minister candidate of the party in the upcoming election, the alliance parties too have been making their presence felt reminding the ruling party that they cannot be taken lightly.
The competition for the Chief Ministerial candidate in the AIADMK came to the fore after a few Ministers were divided in their opinion in the issue. Posters claiming Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam as the next Chief Minister candidate were also pasted in his home constituency Theni.
However, this problem was silenced as both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam asked the cadres to stop the infight and focus on the victory of the party.
It is said that the general council and executive committee meeting of the party will be held soon to sort out the differences and finalise the Chief Minister candidate and decide about the alliance.
While this was happening on one side, BJP which is part of the AIADMK alliance, said that the coalition for the Assembly elections will be headed by the national party. This however did not go well with the AIADMK as cadres said that AIADMK will always be the head of the alliance.
Meanwhile, DMDK which is also part of the AIADMK alliance too asserted its position recently.
DMDK treasurer Premalatha Vijayakanth while speaking to the media on Vijayakanth’s birthday, said that though they are still in alliance with AIADMK, their party cadres want the ‘captain’ to be king.
She said this is the wish of most of them across Tamilnadu for the DMDK to contest the next year’s Assembly elections alone. But she also said that there is too much time for the poll and only the party council meetings will decide on the issue.
This was again downplayed by the AIADMK as the party said that there is nothing wrong in the DMDK cadres wanting their leader to be the Chief Minister.
A section of the AIADMK cadres and leaders are feeling that the alliance parties are throwing in their weight to bargain more in the alliance. However they are also hopeful that things will settle down in time.