Madras HC to decide fate of AIADMK General Council meet today

The Madras High Court is scheduled to pronounce its order at 9 am on a plea by AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam who has sought stalling of a big-ticket party meeting in Chennai where E Palaniswami is set to be elected as the single, supreme party leader. While the meeting is scheduled to begin at 9:15 am, the court would give its order at 9 am.

O Panneerselvam or OPS, and Edappadi K Palaniswami or EPS, have for many months now locked horns over the functioning of the party with the former pushing for the current joint leadership model to continue but the latter eying for single leadership with himself as the party General Secretary.

OPS used to be seen as the political heir of late party chief J Jayalalithaa while EPS enjoyed overwhelming support from party workers.

Jayalalithaa had twice handpicked OPS to be her stand-in-chief minister when she had to step down following her conviction. Though OPS was elevated for the third time just before she died, Jayalalithaa's aide VK Sasikala, who briefly took over the party, replaced him with EPS after he rebelled against her.

However, in a sensational political twist, both leaders patched up and expelled Sasikala when she was in jail. OPS became the number one in the party and EPS his deputy. In the government, OPS became Chief Minister EPS' deputy.

After a series of electoral losses, EPS has said the model is not working while OPS desperately approached courts to retain power over the party.

EPS has even bluntly told his rival OPS that he is not the party's coordinator anymore. During his four-year term as chief minister, EPS consolidated his position and brought the party under his control.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court permitted Team EPS to go ahead with the meeting following the law, Team OPS argued the conduct of the meeting is technically illegal and hence invalid. His lawyer claimed that according to the bylaw, only the Coordinator and Joint Coordinator can convene the meeting.