O Panneerselvam Elected AIADMK’s Deputy Chairman

OPS agreed and approved the appointment of former minister SP Velumani as the party whip

Meeting of MLAs at the AIADMK office

Chennai: Also O Panneerselvam has been elected as deputy chairman of AIADMK's legislative assembly and former minister SP Velumani as whip.

Tamil Nadu: AIADMK Coordinator O Panneerselvam (in file photo) elected as Deputy Leader of Opposition in State Assembly

Former Minister SP Velumani to be the party whip pic.twitter.com/BVUnMYleAZ

— ANI (@ANI) June 14, 2021

The decision was taken at a meeting of MLAs at the AIADMK office here. The meeting, which began at 12 noon under the chairmanship of party coordinator EPS, was held for more than 3 hours. There was a fierce rivalry between the two sides over who is going to be the vice president and who will be the party whip. OPS presented Manoj Pandian as the party whip. But there was strong opposition on the part of Edappadi Palaniswami.

However, OPS agreed and approved the appointment of former minister SP Velumani as the party whip. Arakkonam MLA Ravi has been appointed as deputy whip, former minister Kadampur Raju as treasurer and former minister and Balakode MLA K P Anbazhagan as secretary. The announcement was made to represent all communities.

Meanwhile, the OPS issued a statement congratulating Chief Minister MK Stalin for writing a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to cancel the hydrocarbon auction announcement while the MLAs were meeting.

Earlier, party co-coordinator Edappadi Palaniswami was elected as the leader of the opposition and the former coordinator OPS was the first to leave the meeting. Thereafter, no decision was reached between the two sides on who would be the deputy leader and whip of the opposition. Palaniswami's separate discussions with the party's district secretaries and functionaries without OPS ensured resentment between the two.