The internal crisis in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) seems to have ended after this decision. The Supreme Court of India ruled in favor of its interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami., alienated his rival O Panneerselvam and his insignificance. The two-judge bench found no illegality in calling the meeting A Special General Council Meeting on 11th July, 2022In which a resolution was passed to end the ‘dual leadership’ system under a coordinator and a joint coordinator, restore the post of general secretary and remove Mr. Panneerselvam from the party. The Court did not consider the validity of any of these propositions, but firmly ruled Single Judge of the Madras High Court There was no reason to force leaders separated on technical grounds to work together, ignoring the realities of the situation; And That A Division Bench of the High Court had rightly intervened with this. The decision effectively ended an attempt by the Panneerselvam camp to exert equal control over party affairs through a judicial order to maintain dual leadership. Of course, civil lawsuits are likely to test the validity of these decisions, but this is unlikely to hold judicial conclusions for long. Till then, the AIADMK will remain firmly under the control of Mr. Palaniswami, who has swept aside the rival camp with the help of a massive majority at various levels in the organisation.
Mr Panneerselvam recently talked about “reclaiming the party from a dictator”, but it has now become increasingly clear that he is at odds with his ambition to take over the reins of the party without consolidating its political base. Will face political oblivion. The strategy of keeping himself in the good books of the Center and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), even while hoping to strengthen his case by legal procedures, is not really working out well for him. He had to eat humble pie recently when he withdrew his faction’s candidate for the Erode East assembly bypoll, claiming that the camp wanted the AIADMK’s ‘two leaves’ symbol to succeed. The Supreme Court’s order of counting among the members of the General Council of the party resulted in majority of the members supporting Mr. Palaniswami’s nominee. Mr Palaniswami is no less keen on keeping the BJP on his side, but his strong grip on the party machinery appears to stand him in good stead in the political arena, even as the electoral landscape poses a formidable challenge to the strong DMK-led coalition Is.