Ve. Shanmugam | R. RAGHUNATHAN The rebel camp in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) appears to be in no mood to seek the early convening of the general council.
C.Ve. Shanmugam | R. RAGHUNATHAN The rebel camp in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) appears to be in no mood to seek the early convening of the general council. Even though the camp’s prominent face C.Ve. Shanmugam, a few days ago, called for an early meeting of the general council, a key leader said: “For the time being, all our focus is on getting the issue of the legislature party resolved at the earliest.” The group, led by party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, and the rebel camp have given petitions to Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar against each other about the violation of “whip” issued by them. On the day of adoption of the trust motion moved by the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), the rebel camp, numbering 25 legislators, favoured the government while Mr. Palaniswami’s group, with 22 MLAs, voted against the motion. The leader adds that his camp would like to wait for a few weeks for Mr. Palaniswami to respond to the issues raised by them. The rebel camp is only “demanding” that reasons for successive electoral setbacks be analysed threadbare. As per rule 19 (vii), if one-fifths of members of the general council — approximately 500 members — request the general secretary to hold a meeting of the council, the latter has to do it in 30 days. Meanwhile, sections of the media reported that Mr. Palaniswami had advised several functionaries and members of the general council not to lend their support for the call on holding the general council. Asked whether the rebel camp would join the TVK regime, its representative replies in the affirmative and expects the ruling party to accommodate “more than five representatives” of the camp in the Cabinet. Published - May 16, 2026 11:48 pm IST
S.P. Velumani. File | Periasamy AIADMK rebel leader S.P. Velumani, on Friday (May 15, 2026), expressed his faction’s willingness to hold discussions with party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on intra-party issues.In a post on his social media handle, Mr. Velumani reiterated his group’s position about the need for analysing the reasons for the AIADMK’s defeat in the recent Assembly election. Referring to Mr. Palaniswami’s statement that he was ready to make any sacrifice, Mr. Velumani said that instead of driving out the people of the party, the general secretary should invite his faction for discussion, at least once.Blaming Mr. Palaniswami for acting “arbitrarily” in stitching an alliance for the Assembly poll without “consulting” others, Mr. Velumani felt that the general secretary should have reached out to all his colleagues, at least after the defeat.Veeramani changes tackMeanwhile, AIADMK’s former district secretary for Tirupattur, K.C. Veeramani, on Friday (May 15, 2026) told reporters that his support was for Mr. Palaniswami. Mr. Veeramani, who was elected from Jolarpet, was with the faction led by rebel leaders S.P. Velumani and C.Ve. Shanmugam until Thursday (May 14) and he was among the legislators removed by Mr. Palaniswami from their party positions. S. Pasupathi, the party’s deputy secretary for the medical wing, was appointed the Tirupattur district secretary on Wednesday. Published - May 15, 2026 11:32 am IST
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