AIADMK former minister’s rant in public meeting reveals chinks in party
Asked about this incident, a party senior preferring anonymity said, “the high command does not act on complaints against seniors which is the reason why Ramachandran who is usually a low profile character lost his cool and let off steam at a public meeting.”
VELLORE: Usually low-profile former AIADMK minister and sitting Arani MLA Sevoor S Ramachandran recently lost his cool in a Jayalalithaa birth anniversary celebrations meeting near Arani town. This infuriated AIADMK cadre, who said that the former minister’s outburst against Tiruvannamalai central district secretary L Jayasudha occurred only because the high command refused to act on similar complaints from senior leaders.
Speaking his mind at the meeting, Ramachandran let fly a broadside stating that his pictures were either small or not included in party meeting banners and that Jayasudha was acting inimically to him at the behest of others. After speaking his mind, he left the stage with his supporters raising slogans against Jayasudha.
Asked about this incident, a party senior preferring anonymity said, “the high command does not act on complaints against seniors which is the reason why Ramachandran who is usually a low profile character lost his cool and let off steam at a public meeting.”
He said, “If the same trend continues, affected party men will stop participating in party activities. Citing an example, he said, “the reason why AC Shanmugam, New Justice Party founder, left the AIADMK alliance and joined the BJP was mainly because despite his complaining to party leader Edappadi K Palaniswami about the behaviour of former minister KC Veeramani in the run up to the 2019 parliamentary polls, no action was taken.” “This resulted in Shanmugam stating that he was betrayed by the alliance party, at a public meeting near Vellore where Union Home Minister Amit Shah blew the poll bugle some months ago.”
Meanwhile, an audio purportedly of a conversation between a party cadre from Kumari and former minister C Ponnaiyan, which went viral a week ago highlighted the same issue of Kongu leaders being a law unto themselves and not working for the party. It highlighted how senior leaders stopped talking about the DMK fearing vigilance raids. “Everyone knows that the AIADMK is a cadre-based party, but what will the cadre do if leaders desert the party to safeguard themselves,” asked Kumar of Vellore.