AIADMK Cadre Demand Single Leadership, Party To Decide On Leader Soon: Ex-Minister Jayakumar

AIADMK Single Leader Decision: With O Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palaniswami steering the party, Jayakumar said, we didn’t discuss about the leader during the meet on Tuesday.

Former Minister Jayakumar | Credit: ABP Nadu

Chennai: “Majority of AIADMK secretaries and cadre opined that single leadership is the need of the hour. However, the party did not discuss any names so the party will decide on that,” said AIADMK leader Jayakumar after the district secretaries meeting held at the party headquarters in Royapettah on Wednesday. The former Minister also said that the party will further decide on the leader who will lead the party. 

Addressing the reporters after the meet on Tuesday, Ex-MP Jayakumar said, "During the district secretaries meeting, there were discussions over single leadership of the party. A majority of the party cadre insisted that single leadership is important for AIADMK." 

"Therefore, the party will decide on the leader who'll lead AIADMK. However, we didn’t discuss about any names today," he said.

Further, the former Minister on the reason for switching from dual leadership said, "There’s a time for everything and now a majority of them have said that single leadership is the need of the hour. Hence, we have decided on the need for single leadership for the party but AIADMK will jointly decide on the leader." 

On the decreasing vote bank, Jayakumar said, "The vote bank for AIADMK has not gone down nor there will be an end for the party. So until we have the support of the two late patriarchs and two leaves symbol, we do not have an end.”

To the question on Sasikala, he said, "There is no need to discuss about Sasikala. She is in no way related to the party so why will we waste our time by discussing about her in the general council meeting."

In 2019, even after rumbling in AIADMK demanding a single leadership, the party said the then CM Palaniswami and deputy CM O Panneerselvam will jointly steer the outfit and continued with the decision till now.