With the R K Nagar Assembly bypoll less than a month away, senior AIADMK leaders said differences between the Chief Minister E K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam camps are likely to get accentuated over deciding the candidate for the seat. E Madhusudhanan, a senior leader in the Panneerselvam camp, is reportedly lobbying strongly against the choices of Palaniswami and his ministers. Madhusudhanan is a former party secretary of north Chennai region and was the candidate for R K Nagar last April for the Panneerselvam faction. Many supporting Madhusudhanan hoped that he would get the seat as he “deserves” it, considering his “age and fight for the party”. The party symbol was granted in his name, said an MLA in the Panneerselvam camp. However, D Jayakumar, a senior minister in the Palaniswami camp, could complicate matters. “Jayakumar, with a sizeable clout in north Chennai and his own choice of candidates, has told the party that ministers will not support the campaign if Madhusudhanan is allowed to contest. Also, Palaniswami doesn’t want to give a chance to the Panneerselvam faction as this election is likely to favour the AIADMK,” said a senior AIADMK leader. Meanwhile, a celebration organised by the AIADMK’s ruling faction in Madurai on Saturday — to celebrate the party symbol victory — was attended by Palaniswami but not Panneerselvam and his close aides. A granite stone was also laid, which omitted the name of Panneerselvam. Aspire Swaminathan, Panneerselvam’s close aide and communication manager, expressed his displeasure on Twitter, saying that there was no invitation or information about these celebrations to anyone. Speaking to the Tamil media on Saturday, Rajya Sabha MP V Maitreyan described it as unusual and saddening, as the event ignored key names such as Panneerselvam when it was organised by none other than ministers. “Moreover, if it was to celebrate the retrieval of the party symbol, what about K P Munuswamy, I myself, Manoj Pandian and senior leaders who camped in Delhi for several months and fought for the symbol? We were all ignored,” he said. It was Maitreyan, a close aide of Panneerselvam, who had first spoken about the problems within the unified party. However, sources close to Palaniswami said an additional stone was erected at the venue on Saturday evening with the missing names. “OPS’s name is there now,” said a senior minister. He added that both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam had shared the stage at a function in Ramanathapuram on Saturday evening following the controversy in the morning. DMK names candidate The DMK on Saturday named N Marudu Ganesh as its candidate for the R K Nagar bypoll. He was fielded by the DMK for the bypoll in April as well.
