AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami addressing the media outside the Legislative Assembly after staging a walkout from the Budget session on Friday
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Saturday (March 15, 2024) sought to play down reported differences of opinion between him and veteran party leader and former Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan.
“You need to ask him,” Mr. Palaniswami retorted to a journalist’s question regarding the absence of Mr. Sengottaiyan at the legislature party’s meeting on Friday (March 14, 2025).
Pointing to his colleagues who were with him during his interaction with the media outside the Assembly chamber on the campus of Fort St. George on Friday, the AIADMK leader said not all the 62 MLAs of his party were present. “Everyone has got work to do. Our members function freely. There is no bar. No party other than ours has given absolute freedom to its members, because all of them are colleagues,” Mr. Palaniswami said.
Referring to reports in the media that some functionaries had not taken part in social events attended by him, the AIADMK general secretary said: “I do not depend on others. I am an ordinary worker, and not the leader. Unlike the DMK, we do not follow the politics of the dynasty. Ours is not like a family party. There is no dictatorship here [in the party],“ he said, adding that the DMK was his “only adversary”.
Published – March 15, 2025 01:07 pm IST
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