Jittery AIADMK rebels blink first, plead EPS to call them for rapprochement

Apprehensive of losing the membership of the House following voting in favour of the confidence motion of Chief Minister and TVK president Joseph Vijay, in violation of the party whip, the AIADMK rebels on Friday pleaded party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) to call them for a dialogue to settle the differences.

The rebel camp’s move to blink first comes in the wake of EPS submitting a petition last evening to Speaker JCD Prabhakar, seeking their disqualification for violating the party diktat in the trust vote. Another petition was also submitted to the Governor’s office. Moreover, the rebels witnessed desertion from their ranks, with former minister KC Veeramani joining the EPS camp.

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“Call us once, rather than driving away as usual. Everything will change for the better. It will be good for the party,” Velumani said in a post on ‘X’.

However, he defended support for the Vijay government on the pretext that it was the TVK that had secured the mandate. While acknowledging the extensive election campaign undertaken by EPS for the AIADMK, Velumani bemoaned the lack of due consultation in the party despite the poll rout and EPS taking decisions unilaterally.

For their part, the dissidents have also submitted petitions to the Speaker and the Governor’s office, claiming legitimacy. The split was wide open in the Assembly when 25 of the 47 AIADMK MLAs voted in favour of the trust vote, disregarding the party’s directive to vote against it.

Now, it is EPS who has the cards, as the dissidents do not have the required two-thirds majority to split the party and join the TVK. Following the rebellion, EPS had cracked the whip by stripping as many as 26 AIADMK district secretaries of their posts. This has rattled the rebels led by former ministers C Ve Shanmugam, SP Velumani and C Vijayabhaskar. Interestingly, Leema Rose, wife of lottery magnate Santiago Martin and mother-in-law of TVK leader and Tamil Nadu minister Aadhav Arjuna, is with the dissidents.

Now, the ball is in the Speaker’s court. However, EPS appears to have the upper hand as Vijay’s decision to induct the rebels in the ministry could be seen as politically expedient. It also remains to be seen whether EPS will press for their disqualification since he had not acted against O Panneerselvam and 10 other dissident legislators who voted against his government in 2017.