MADURAI: With all factions of the AIADMK coming under attack from the Opposition for supporting the BJP nominee in the Presidential elections, former chief minister O.Panneerselvam on Monday justified the decision saying his leader J.Jayalalithaa would have done the same if she was alive. In a brief interaction with the media at Usilampatti, about 50 km from here, the former chief minister also ruled out a merger of the AIADMK factions. “The committee that was formed to discuss modalities for merger with the EPS faction has been disbanded and there is no chance of any merger now,” Mr Panneerselvam said.
The OPS and EPS factions of the AIADMK had constituted committees to discuss merger, but the talks could never take off due to major differences between the two sides. And, Mr Panneerselvam unilaterally scrapped the committee headed by his faction leader KP Munusamy, thereby ruling out any chances of a patch up between the two sides. On the Presidential elections, Mr Panneerselvam said the decision by the AIADMK factions was in line with late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s principles.
All three factions of the AIADMK led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, O Panneerselvam and TTV Dhinakaran had expressed their support to NDA’s Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind. “If Amma (Jayalalithaa) would have been alive she would have supported the NDA candidate and that is what we have done,” he said when asked why all AIADMK factions supported Mr Kovind’s candidature.
Mr Panneerselvam was apparently referring to late Jayalalithaa not supporting candidates put forth by the Congress-led UPA in 2007 and 2012. In 2012, the AIADMK supported PA Sangma, who was also backed by the BJP. “Just because all factions of the AIADMK are supporting the NDA candidate, we cannot say we will merge,” he said, in response to another question. Mr Panneerselvam’s statement comes a day after Opposition Leader MK Stalin launched a frontal attack on the three camps of the AIADMK accusing them of “surrendering the government and the state” before the Union Government.
