1 day ago
1
Nearly 2 weeks aft the vertical divided of the AIADMK Legislature Party, the rival factions — 1 headed by wide caput Edappadi K. Palaniswami and the different by erstwhile Minister S.P. Velumani — buried the hatchet and arrived astatine a truce connected Wednesday (May 27, 2026).
The rebel MLAs headed by Mr. Velumani besides presented letters to the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly J.C.D. Prabhakar astatine the Secretariat, requesting to condone their enactment of voting contrary to the absorption issued by enactment whip Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy during the vote of assurance of the Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay-led government successful the Assembly connected May 10.
The Speaker, portion speaking to journalists, confirmed the receipt of the letters from the AIADMK MLAs. He said helium would spell done the petitions submitted earlier, arsenic good arsenic those submitted connected Wednesday, and denote his determination connected Thursday (May 28).
Speaking to reporters aft gathering Mr. Prabhakar, Mr. Velumani said some factions had withdrawn the erstwhile petitions presented separately to the Speaker seeking the disqualification of the legislators of the different group.
S.P. Velumani and different MLAs taxable letters to Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
Emergence of rift
It each began with the vertical divided of the AIADMK Legislature Party during the ballot of assurance successful the Assembly connected May 10. A radical of 25 rebel legislators headed by Mr. Velumani voted successful favour of the question of confidence, portion 22 MLAs headed by Mr. Palaniswami voted against it.
Following the split, some factions submitted petitions to the Speaker seeking disqualification of the MLAs of the different group. Meanwhile, connected May 25, 3 MLAs from the Mr. Velumani faction — Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), S. Jayakumar (Perundurai), and P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram) — resigned from their MLA posts and aboriginal joined the ruling TVK.
On the aforesaid day, 5 different rebel MLAs — S.M. Sukumar (Arcot), P. Hari Bhaskar (Anthiyur), K. Mohan (Panruti), Dileepan Jaishankar (Sankarankoil), and N.S.N. Nataraj (Kangayam) — switched their loyalties to Mr. Palaniswami’s side.
The adjacent day, different rebel MLA Esakki Subaya resigned from his MLA station and aboriginal joined the TVK, portion P. Balakrishna Reddy (Hosur) extended enactment to Mr. Palaniswami. With this bid of resignations and switching sides, the spot of the rebel campy was reduced from 25 to 15. On Wednesday, some factions arrived astatine a truce. Barring elder functionary C.Ve. Shanmugam, each the rebel MLAs met the Speaker.
‘Only quality of opinion’
Mr. Velumani said, “There was nary part oregon divided among us. We lone had immoderate differences of opinion. We person urged the wide caput [Mr. Palaniswami] to represent a committee to introspect connected the electoral defeats faced by the party. He said helium would instrumentality it up measurement by step.”
The erstwhile Minister besides said determination had been assorted claims that the 25 AIADMK MLAs voted successful favour of the TVK authorities successful instrumentality for Ministerial berths and different posts. “We did not inquire for immoderate posts. They [TVK] besides made it wide that nary specified statement was made.” To a question astir Mr. Shanmugam not joining them during their gathering with the Speaker, Mr. Velumani said “He is besides with each of us.”
Most rebel MLAs conscionable EPS astatine his residence connected Wednesday | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Earlier successful the day, astir of the rebel MLAs, including Mr. Velumani, called connected Mr. Palaniswami astatine his residence successful Chennai. However, Mr. Shanmugam and C. Vijayabaskar did not travel them.
