Chennai: Rival AIADMK leaders, Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, took off for different destinations from the Chennai airport on Monday – one reportedly to Varanasi to pray at the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the other to meet the top officials at the Election Commission of India in New Delhi.
Panneerselvam, who left by an Indigo flight to Varanasi, was accompanied by half a score of family members as he is reportedly visiting the holy city to pay obequies to his wife, Vijaylakshmi, who passed away in September 2021.
He was reportedly at Rameswaram earlier in connection with the annual rites and is said to have left for the Kashi Vishwanath temple now.
Palaniswami, who was accompanied by some party leaders, is said to be on a serious business of convincing the Election Commission of India (ECI) that he indeed is the top honcho of the AIADMK. It would indeed be a tough job since Panneerselvam had already informed the ECI that status quo continued in the party and that he and Palaniswami were holding the top position together as coordinator and joint coordinator.
A team of AIADMK leaders and lawyers had already gone to Delhi to prepare the ground for Palaniswami’s visit in which the latest court documents would be produced to prove that he alone hold the reins of the party as a single leader and that the party symbol ‘two leaders’ should be allotted to them only.
