EPS meets district secretaries; rebel faction meets supporters

Chennai: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Tuesday held a meeting with district secretaries at the party headquarters in Chennai in a bid to consolidate his position within the party, even as the rebel faction held a parallel meeting reiterating their demand for the general council to be convened immediately.EPS supporter and AIADMK Rajya Sabha M P Dhanapal said "about 80" of the 82 district secretaries had attended the meeting and expressed their support to him. This includes 31 district secretaries who were newly appointed by Palaniswami replacing the functionaries of the rebel faction.A statement from AIADMK headquarters said that the district secretaries had conveyed their support and cooperation to Palaniswami. The statement added that the functionaries who attended the meeting has expressed their gratitude to Palaniswami for his "extensive campaign which resulted in the victory of 47 AIADMK candidates and six alliance party candidates"."EPS said victory and defeat are part and parcel of elections and that party functionaries should not desert the party because of election results,'' said a functionary who attended the meeting. Palaniswami also flayed the rebel faction stating that they are leaving the party out of desperation for "power and posts", the functionary said.Some of the key leaders including former minister D Jayakumar, didn't participate in the meeting. Sources said Jayakumar was absent due to health issues. "Almost all the district secretaries participated. Some were late, but they came," former minister B V Ramana said.Meanwhile, the rebel faction led by C Ve Shanmugam and S P Velumani held a parallel meeting and levelled a series of allegations against Palaniswami blaming him for the poll debacle. "We insisted on having an alliance with TVK, but he refused. He also avoided DMDK, calling it a party with 0.5% votes. Even Puthiya Tamizhagam founder Dr Krishnasamy was not inducted into the alliance,'' Shanmugam said."All we want is a strong AIADMK. Convene general council and discuss everything there. We will accept the decision of majority members of general council,'' he said. Shanmugam took a dig at Palaniswami for sacking rebel MLAs from party posts. "How can you grow a party by removing people? The sacking is invalid,'' he said.