Tamil Nadu: EC Approves Edappadi K Palaniswami As AIADMK General Secretary

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has approved Edappadi K Palaniswami, popularly known as EPS, as the General Secretary of AIADMK.

Going by the updated list of the AIADMK office-bearers, Palaniswami is the General Secretary of the AIADMK. It is based on the submissions made by EPS.

The development comes after the March verdict of the Madras High Court, in which it dismissed all interim applications filed by expelled AIADMK leaders O Panneerselvam (OPS) and three of his supporters, and declined to intervene in their expulsion from the party.

Not just the AIADMK, the ECI has updated list of office-bearers of many other political parties.

Following Jayalalithaa's demise in 2016, the warring OPS and EPS factions came together to oust VK Sasikala -confidante of Jayalalithaa- and her relatives and amended party bye-laws designating Jayalalithaa as the eternal general secretary.

It came up with a new dual leadership structure giving equal powers to EPS and OPS and made them joint-coordinator and coordinator respectively.

The dual leadership was scrapped last year and Panneerselvam and his supporters were expelled leading to legal battles in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court and the matter also reached the Election Commission. OPS and his team had lost in several such battles.

While the Madras High Court rejected pleas of Panneerselvam and his aides against their expulsion from AIADMK, 68-year-old Palaniswami for the first time became the general secretary after the post's revival last year. Before his elevation, EPS was the interim general secretary.

Party founder-leader M G Ramachandran (MGR), J Jayalalithaa, Navalar VR Nedunchezhiyan, P U Shanmugam and S Raghavanandam were the only other leaders who had held that top post in the AIADMK, which was founded in 1972.