Yet to decide on Prez poll, says Chief Minister

The term of the present president Pranab Mukherjee ends on June 24 and hence the race is on to find the next incumbent. Interacting with media, the Chief Minister highlighted the fact that there would be no issue within the party regarding support for the Presidential candidate, as the incumbent government have the support of 123 MLAs. 

When asked about Dairy Minister Rajenthira Balaji recently stating that there was nothing wrong in the AIADMK supporting the BJP candidate in the presidential polls as it was not an ‘untouchable’ and currently ruled more than 10 states, the Chief Minister said that this was the first he was hearing of the issue. 

Meanwhile, AIADMK (PTA) led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam was happy that nearly 500 party cadre from Tiruchy under the leadership of former minister M Paranjothi joined their faction on Friday. 

Similarly, another 50 cadre from Villupuram district led by MP R Lakshmanan also joined the group. Interacting with the media, OPS supporter and former minister KP Munusamy demanded to know what action EPS would take on the 32 MLAs who openly supported TTV Dinakaran despite Finance Minister D Jayakumar clearly stating that AIADMK (A) would have no truck with Dinakaran and VK Sasikala. 

Similarly, referring to Sasikala’s husband M Natarajan’s statement that if both factions did not unite posterity would not forgive them, Munusamy said Natarajan had no locus standi to comment the AIADMK affairs. 

State Information Minister Kadambur Raju, who was also in Pudukkottai for the inauguration of the new government medical college hospital reiterated what EPS said adding that there were no differences among the legislators.