The Madras High Court on Sunday allowed the AIADMK to go ahead with elections to the post of General Secretary but restrained it from declaring the results till the petitions filed against the election process is decided.
Justice K Kumaresh Babu, who held a special sitting on Sunday, told the court that he would pass the orders on March 24 if both sides concluded their arguments by March 22. The judge also said he will issue a common order after the fresh petitions along with those filed against the July 11 General Council meeting of the AIADMK.
The order was passed on a batch of petitions filed by P H Manoj Pandian, a key supporter of expelled leader O Panneerselvam and a legislator, and others seeking a stay on the elections to GS post scheduled for March 26. Pandian filed the petition after the AIADMK announced the election schedule on Friday and interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami filed his nomination.
While the OPS argued that the election notification wasn’t fair as applications seeking a stay on the resolutions passed at July 11 were still pending, the EPS side contended that the court should not interfere in the election process. The court will have a special sitting on March 22, a holiday on the occasion of Ugadi.
Since only Palaniswami has filed nomination, he will be elected as the General Secretary. But the AIADMK cannot announce the results.
OPS camp says the election is invalid as the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to ratify the amendments to byelaws of the party approved by the General Council. Unless the EC accepts the amendments, they said, the AIADMK cannot hold elections to the post of general secretary.
The AIADMK’s internal problems which began after Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016 are yet to be solved. While OPS rebelled against V K Sasikala in 2017, the latter anointed Palaniswami as the Chief Minister before she went to Bengaluru to serve her prison term in the disproportionate assets (DA) case.
However, after she went to jail, OPS and EPS patched up and ran the AIADMK as coordinator and joint coordinator for about five years when Palaniswami struck unannounced seeking unitary leadership in the party.