Tamil Nadu Election 2021: E Palaniswami Chosen As AIADMK's CM Candidate Amid Faceoff With Stalin

The announcement comes at a time when the state leaders of BJP have been saying that its high command is going to announce the elections CM candidate as the head of NDA.

File Photo by Arun SANKAR / AFP

Chennai: AIADMK's General Council in Tamil Nadu ratified the nomination of E. Palaniswami as the party's Chief Ministerial candidate in the upcoming assembly elections on Saturday.  At a meeting held near Chennai, the Council passed a resolution confirming Joint Coordinator and incumbent Tamil Nadu CM E. Palaniswami as the Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming assembly election. The Council also authorised party Coordinator and Deputy CM O. Panneerselvam and Palaniswami to reach a decision on factors like finalising the poll allies, seat-sharing arrangement with them and come up with the poll strategy to retain power. "This general council authorises O Panneerselvam and Edapadi K Palaniswami to devise winning strategies to ensure a grand win in the 2021 polls, create an AIADMK-led victory alliance and decide seat-sharing with alliance parties," the members resolved. The meeting was presided over by the party Presidium Chairman E. Madhusudhanan. The announcement comes at a time when the state leaders of BJP have been saying that its high command is going to announce the same as the head of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). But the AIADMK leaders are in no mood to budge while clearly stating that being a leading force in Tamil Nadu - it is the party that would spear head the alliance and those agreeable can stay and others can leave. The General Council also approved the 11-member steering committee set up in October 2020. In a resolution, it has also condemned DMK President M.K. Stalin for "personal attacks" agianst Palaniswami after the latter leveled allegations of corruption against the state government. The party, in another resolution, stated that it would strive hard to "put an end to the dynasty politics of one family" and ensure that a "true democratic government" under AIADMK is installed. This comes a day after Edappadi K Palaniswami dared Stalin to prove his accusations against him. Earlier, the DMK president had accepeted the challenge for an open debate on corruption charges. Meanwhile ruling AIADMK, Stalin led DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and Kamal Haasan led MNM (Makkal Needhi Maiam) have already started their election campaigning for the state assembly elections. (With Agency Input) Watch top news of the day in Super 20