Chennai (Tamil Nadu): Incumbent Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami will be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the AIADMK for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, party top leader and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam announced here on Wednesday.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister EPS has announced the names of the 11-member steering committee, which includes Dindigul Sreenivasan, Thangamani, SP Velumani, Jayakumar, CV Shanmugam, Kamaraj, Prabakaram (former MLA), PH Manoj Pandian, Pa Mohan, Gopala Krishnan, Manikam MLA (Cholavandam constituency).
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam said: "As the resolution passed in the general body meeting our Chief Minister announced the 11 member names of the steering committee and I wish them all."
"Our party is found by MG Ramachandran in name of Anna. And it is a party movement and nobody has won three times. Our Amma led the party with the same path of MGR. His dreams of party and government should be with cadres. We are doing it now," he said.
The decision has been taken unanimously in consultations led by party praesidium chairman E Madusudanan, he said.
Apart from him, Palaniswami, party deputy coordinators K P Munusamy, R Vaithilingam and members of the Steering Committee have unanimously resolved to nominate Palaniswami as the AIADMK's Chief Ministerial candidate, he announced amid thunderous applause.
The much-awaited twin announcements have brought the curtain down on speculations over the CM candidate of the ruling party and ended intra-party differences over setting up the panel.
Read: No rift between Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, says minister
On October 1, Tamil Nadu Minister D Jayakumar had sought to play down reports of differences between Chief Minister E Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, saying that there are no differences between the two.
On reports that Panneerselvam earlier skipped the meeting called by the Chief Minister and met party members, he said, "He is our party organisation coordinator, so what is the problem if he meets party members. There could be many reasons for not attending the Chief Minister's meeting, like meeting medical experts etc. But please don't link it to politics."
Earlier, sources told that during the AIADMK's executive party meet on September 28, the discussions for party's Chief Ministerial face was debated for more than five hours with Palaniswami and Panneerselvam in the race.
During the meeting, it was also felt that in case the current Chief Minister was not named as the candidate for the next year's Assembly elections it would make the party and its government in the state a subject of ridicule for the Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Palaniswami got backing from senior leaders S Semmalai, P Thangamani, CV Shanmugam and Natham R Viswanathan in the meeting.
A top source in the party, who himself was earlier backing Panneerselvam before the merger, told that the debate around the Chief Minister post candidate should be considered settled now with most of the leaders agreeing with the final outcome "as of now" to Palaniswami as a candidate for 2021 elections.
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(Inputs from Agencies)
