Edappadi K Palaniswami uses DMK bait to prepare party MLAs for general council

CHENNAI: In a bid to keep his flock together and ensure strong numbers for the forthcoming general council meeting scheduled on September 12, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami began interactions with party legislators on Thursday . He exhorted them to get ready for the crucial meet of the high-level bodies that is expected to oust V K Sasikala from the post of party general secretary.The TTV Dhinakaran camp has, however, stuck to its stand that only the general secretary is authorized to con vene the council meeting. In the first round of meets at his Greenways Road ings at his Greenways Road residence in city, the CM held talks with MLAs of Trichy , Tirunelveli, Vellore, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam, advising them to stay united and help the party in the show of strength against the Sasikala clan. The AIADMK general council has 2,700 members, who are party functionaries.Palaniswami pepped up cadre morale by telling them that DMK was behind the TTV camp rebellion. “We feel confident after meeting him. He requested us to come for the meeting with all members from our respective districts,“ said an MLA from Tirunelveli. Local ministers accompanied the MLAs during the CM's meet.
Meanwhile, there was talk that the TTV camp too was reaching out to legislators and general council members. Palaniswami told the MLAs that he would retrieve the two-leaves symbol and the party's name soon.
“He told us not to worry about the dissidents, as none wanted to pull down the government. He wants us to stay united for the well-being of Amma's government,“ another MLA said. Save three MLAs of Vellore and one from Cuddalore, the remaining 25 from the six districts attended the meeting.
When the legislators informed Palaniswami about the frequency of calls from the TTV camp, the latter told them to ignore them. The MLAs were reminded of the consecutive poll victories authored by Jayalalithaa and the need to keep the momentum going without the influence of the Sasikala family . “The CM said that is the popular sentiment of the public. He directed us to take Amma's schemes to the people and hinted at local body elections soon,“ a Trichy MLA said.
Villupuram minister C Ve Shanmugam led his district MLAs, and that of Cuddalore, where the local MLAs are not on talking terms with local minister M C Sampath. Vellamandi Natarajan, K C Veeramani, O S Manian and V M Rajalakshmi led the legislators.