R. ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, AUG 13
Setting the speculations on the Chief Ministerial candidate for 2021 assembly elections at rest, ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Deputy Coordinator and Rajya Saba MP K P Munusamy on Thursday said party’s top leaders would take a call on it at an appropriate time.
The senior leader also categorically said that the ruling party in Tamil Nadu would lead the alliance in the 2021 assembly elections.
தாய்வழி வந்த
தங்கங்கள் எல்லாம்
ஓர்வழி நின்று
நேர்வழி சென்றால்
நாளை நமதே! https://t.co/3afZ16jKAg— O Panneerselvam (@OfficeOfOPS) August 13, 2020
Speaking after deliberations at the party headquarters here on administrative issues, the senior leader praised Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami for the state government’s “pioneering” work in the fight against COVID-19.
“A decision will be announced at the appropriate time by the party top brass after due consultations at the highest level. I request the media to please wait till then,” he told reporters here to a question when a meeting would be held to decide the Chief Ministerial candidate and if the matter was deliberated on Thursday.
If there would be a meeting of district secretaries and ministers to deliberate on the matter, he said, “We are not worried about it. This is not an issue at all. It is the media that is magnifying it.”
Leading to speculations of power play in the ruling party, the debate on “Chief Minister candidate” was triggered after Madurai-based leader and Minister Sellur K Raju had said the CM would be chosen by elected MLAs while his cabinet colleague K T Rajenthra Bhalaji favoured projecting the incumbent.
Senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar on Wednesday said the opinions of the two ministers cannot be construed as the official party line and that such decisions will be taken by appropriate bodies.
He had also said the airing of opinions in public will “weaken” the party workers’ resolve to ensure the AIADMK rule continued after the polls but indicated such decisions will be ”smooth”.
On preparatory work for the assembly elections by the party, Munusamy said it had begun a long ago and was continuing, citing regular meetings and consultations in the party wings.
Palaniswami was “leading the government now” efficiently and he was ably being assisted by his deputy O Panneerselvam and all other Ministers, he said.
Palaniswami-led government is a role model for others in the efficient management of the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. To a question on BJP state vice-president V P Duraisamy claiming that his party would lead the AIADMK combine in Tamil Nadu, Munusamy said the party’s state unit Chief L Murugan himself said the alliance with AIADMK continued.
He has also said the ruling party in Tamil Nadu would lead the alliance. Munusamy, elected to Rajya Sabha in March, is an AIADMK veteran and he was with the Panneerselvam camp before the factions led by Palaniswami and the Deputy Chief Minister joined hands in August 2017.
Both the Dravidian parties have been dominating the TN poll scenario for over five decades. All national parties used to take a piggyback ride on them in the assembly as well as parliamentary polls.
For the AIADMK, the 2021 battle would be the first assembly elections after the demise of its supremo Jayalalithaa, who had led the party to a second straight term five years ago. She had died in December 2016.
