Ready to rejoin AIADMK, says Panneerselvam, no chance of taking back: Palaniswami

Periyakulam/Salem (Tamil Nadu), Jan 29 (PTI) Expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam involved in a leadership tussle with party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday said he was willing to return to the party fold but the request was quickly turned down by his rival.

In a rapid development that unfolded hours after Panneerselvam’s announcement, Palaniswami bluntly declined to readmit him into the party saying the collective decision to expel him from AIADMK was made by the party's general council, its highest decision-making body.

Panneerselvam, who had launched the AIADMK Workers' Rights Retrieval Committee and has been pitching for a united AIADMK, dramatically announced in Periyakulam in Theni district that he was willing to return to the parent organisation.

"I am ready to join the AIADMK. Are T T V Dhinakaran (AMMK general secretary) and Palaniswami ready (to accept)," the former Chief Minister asked.

Dhinakaran, who was also expelled from the AIADMK, had opposed Palaniswami who was roped in by the BJP to lead the NDA in Tamil Nadu for the upcoming Assembly election. He had launched the AMMK in 2018. Recently Dhinakaran returned to the NDA accepting the former Chief minister's leadership to defeat the DMK at the hustings.

Following a meeting with his supporters at his native Periyakulam, Panneerselvam told reporters that the objective of the movement he launched was to retrieve the rights of the AIADMK cadres for which a legal battle was on.

In his native district Salem, situated about 230 km from Periyakulam, Palaniswami told reporters after attending an event that the AIADMK general council took a unanimous decision in 2022 to expel Panneerselvam.

"It was not my decision but a collective decision of the party's general council comprising over 2,500 members. There is no chance of re-admitting him into the party," the AIADMK general secretary said.

"I have been saying this for long. But he has been harping on the same issue for four years. He was removed from party's primary membership for betrayal and anti-party activities (in 2022)," Palaniswami said. PTI JSP JSP SA