AIADMK to hold conference in Madurai on August 20

In a bid to galvanise party workers ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the opposition AIADMK in Tamil Nadu will conduct a conference in Madurai in August. This will be the first major public outreach of the party after Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) was elevated as the AIADMK general secretary recently. The party’s Executive, which met here on Sunday, adopted a resolution that such party conferences in the AIADMK’s history conducted by the late leaders M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa have proved to be turning points for it in the past, even leading it to the ruling saddle. After a court nod, interim general secretary Palaniswami was elevated to the present position, the party’s highest authority, following a leadership tussle with ousted leader O Panneerselvam. AIADMK, the principal opposition party in the state, also lashed out at its rival, the ruling DMK. The executive adopted resolutions against the government over issues including alleged deteriorating law and order, drug menace, arrest of AIADMK IT wing functionaries and its other workers for ‘exposing’ the ruling party’s ‘misdeeds’ among others. It also demanded the DMK to implement its various poll promises made ahead of the 2021 elections. The party hit out at the government over effecting hike in property tax, water tax, besides rising inflation. It vowed to stand by Palaniswami and ”unmask traitors”. In another resolution, the party resolved to work hard for the victory of the AIADMK-led alliance in next year’s Lok Sabha polls and emerge victorious in the Assembly elections in 2026 under Palaniswami’s leadership.