Tamil Nadu: AIADMK District Secretaries' meeting underway at party headquarters in Chennai

The meeting is being held in the presence of Interim General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami. AIADMK Former Ministers D Jayakumar, Velumani, P Thangamani, Benjamin, KA Sengottaiyan, and K Kamaraj are also present in the meeting.

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) district secretaries' meeting has begun at party headquarters in Chennai to discuss the Erode East by-election debacle on Thursday. The meeting is being held in the presence of Interim General Secretary Edappadi Palaniswami. AIADMK Former Ministers D Jayakumar, Velumani, P Thangamani, Benjamin, KA Sengottaiyan, and K Kamaraj are also present.

AIADMK District Secretaries from all over the state are also present in the meeting. Discussion on party's preparation for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections are expected to be held in the meeting, said sources.

On March 3, Erode East's byelection result was announced by the Election Commission of India. The ruling DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) on March 3 retained the Erode East assembly seat in western Tamil Nadu. The joint candidate of the DMK-Congress alliance EVKS Elangovan won the Erode East byelection by defeating AIADMK's KS Thennarasu.

On Wednesday, a total of 13 functionaries from Tamil Nadu's BJP quit the party to join its alliance partner the AIADMK. The 13 people who resigned belonged to the BJP's IT wing in Chennai West.

The development comes as the State unit of the BJP accused the Edappadi Palaniswami-led AIADMK of allegedly "poaching" its leaders. BJP IT Wing District president Anbarasan in a statement had said, "I have worked for BJP for years. People know that I have never expected any position. Considering the unusual scenario in the party for the past few days I have decided to resign from the party."

The statement bore the signatures of 10 IT Wing District Secretaries and two IT Wing District Deputy Secretaries. On Tuesday, BJP Intellectual Wing State Secretary Krishnan, IT wing State secretary Dileep Kannan, Trichy Rural District Vice President Vijay and State OBC Wing Secretary Ammu joined AIADMK after meeting with Edappadi K Palaniswami.

This came just days after the exit of BJP State IT Wing Chief Nirmal Kumar to AIADMK who quit the party levelling serious allegations against Annamalai. Similarly, IT Wing State Secretary Krishnan also resigned from BJP blaming Annamalai. This has sparked a war of words on social media between supporters of AIADMK and the BJP.

BJP functionaries had raised questions about how Edappadi Palaniswami can welcome them with a smile by being an alliance partner. In one such Twitter post, BJP Sports and Skill Development State President Amar Prasad Reddy mentioned "AIADMK being an alliance partner shouldn't have done this". Meanwhile, earlier Annamalai had told ANI, "Some four BJP leaders have joined, it's an unfortunate state in Tamil Nadu where Dravidian politicians who think that they run big parties want to poach from BJP and grow their party. That only shows BJP is growing".

Reacting to Annamalai's comments AIADMK IT Wing Secretary Singai Ramachandran retorted on Twitter, "Once BJP was getting votes lesser than NOTA. In the 2021 election, how BJP MLAs won the election is the answer for this (AIADMK - BJP faced the election as allies). AIADMK is the organization which won the election single-handedly. It is only a joke to say to develop AIADMK, BJP persons are needed". Even during the Erode East bypoll, there was a war of words between AIADMK and BJP with AIADMK passing comments saying the BJP doesn't have a role in inter-party issues. Now once again it has become debatable. (ANI)

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