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AIADMK MLAs Likely To Urge Sasikala To Take Over As Tamil Nadu CM At Sunday Meet In Chennai

Sasikala was appointed as AIADMK General Secretary on 29 December.
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CHENNAI -- The chorus for AIADMK General Secretary Sasikala to take over as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is likely to gain further momentum at a meeting of the party MLAs in Chennai on Sunday.

The meeting is likely to be held in Chennai in the afternoon tomorrow, party sources said.

However, the sources did not commit on the agenda of the meeting and declined to confirm reports that the MLAs would urge Sasikala, who was made the General Secretary following the death of Jayalalithaa, to take over as Chief Minister.

"It is all your imagination and guess work," a senior leader said when asked about reports of Sasikala taking over from Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.

Ever since Jayalalithaa's death in December, there has been a clamour that Sasikala should follow the earlier practice of both the party general secretary and the chief minister's post should be vested in the same person.

Among others, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai has backed Sasikala for the Chief Minister's post.

On Friday, Sasikala had appointed senior leaders, including some former Ministers and a former Mayor, to key party posts.

Former Ministers K A Sengottaiyan, S Gokula Indira and B V Ramana, besides ex-Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy were made the AIADMK's Organisation Secretaries.

The appointments also included that of Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar to a key party post.

She had also announced removal of Ambattur MLA V Alexander as AIADMK's MGR Youth Wing Secretary. He will, however, continue as the party's Tiruvallore (East) District Secretary, Sasikala had said in a statement.

Last month, Thambidurai had said that the leadership in both the party and governance should be with the same person, while urging Sasikala to take over as Chief Minister.

He had cited the political tussle in Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to drive home his point that the control of government and party should vest with the same person.

Sasikala was appointed as General Secretary by AIADMK's top decision-making body General Council on 29 December. She took charge of the post on 31 December, pledging to take forward the legacy of Jayalalithaa.

In December last year, four state ministers had asked Sasikala to become the Chief Minister, besides AIADMK General Secretary.

A resolution to this effect was passed at a meeting of Tirunelveli Urban Jaya Peravai (Forum), led by state AIADMK secretary and revenue minister R B Udhayakumar on 17 December.

The other ministers who participated in the meeting were V M Rajalakshmi, Sevoor Ramachandran and Kadambur Raju.

Sasikala, 62, had been a close aide of Jayalalithaa for three decades and was always seen as a power centre in AIADMK.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.