Churning in the AIADMK becomes evident in Tamil Nadu Assembly

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one. Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective. First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming. Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day. Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in! Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary. The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features. Updated - May 11, 2026 07:25 pm IST - CHENNAI A faction of 30 plus AIADMK MLAs led by Mailam Assembly constituency MLA C.Ve.Shanmugam and Thondamuthur Assembly Constituency MLA S.P. Velumani coming out of Pro-tem Assembly speaker MV. Karuppaiah’s office after submitting letter as the new leader of the AIADMK Legislative Party, on May 11, 2026. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam The churning in the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) was on Monday (May 11, 2026) evident in the Assembly, going by the reception provided by the party legislators to the party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami and the rebel leader S.P. Velumani, in the House. Unlike on previous occasions in the last five years when Mr. Palaniswami was accompanied by a large contingent of his colleagues while entering the Assembly premises, only a handful of MLAs had escorted him this time. Mr. Velumani, who served as Local Administration Minister in the Palaniswami Cabinet and seen invariably with the former in the past, came later to the Assembly premises along with former Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, former Health Minister. Likewise, when the turn came for the former Chief Minister and Mr. Velumani to be sworn in as the MLAs, the reception given to them by their colleagues, in the form of thumping of desks, was barely different from each other. The message was clear: the challenge to Mr. Palaniswami’s leadership was quite open. In the last four days, the residence of former Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam on Karpagam Avenue, near Foreshore Estate, became the centre of activity among dissidents in the AIADMK wherein a large number of MLAs and other office bearers were involved in discussions on chalking out their future course of action. Mr Shanmugam, who did not attend the oath taking event in the morning, went to the Assembly around 3.15 p.m. and was sworn in as an MLA. After the swearing in of all the legislators was over, a letter, purportedly signed by a group of legislators of the AIADMK stating that Mr. Palaniswami had been elected leader of the legislature party, was submitted to the Pro-tem Speaker M.V. Karuppaiah at his chamber. Of the total of 47 MLAs belonging to the AIADMK, the number of legislators cited by certain sections of the media in support of the general secretary was 17, but a member of the Palaniswami camp claimed it was 24. Former Handlooms Minister, O.S. Manian, who handed over the letter to the Pro-tem Speaker, told The Hindu that he was not aware of the contents of the letter. “I did what I was asked to do,” he observed. Around 6 p.m., Mr. Shanmugam, accompanied by Mr. Velumani and many other former Ministers including Natham R. Viswanathan and R. Kamaraj, came to the office of the Pro-tem Speaker and presented a letter, claiming the support of 30 MLAs for the leadership of Mr Velumani. Earlier in the day, Mr. Palaniswami refuted a suggestion of journalists that the party was heading towards a split. About two years ago, when the party had suffered a drubbing in the Lok Sabha election, a delegation of six leaders including Mr. Shanmugam, Mr. Velumani and Mr. Viswanathan had sought to impress upon Mr. Palaniswami that there should be reconciliation with former party leaders including V.K. Sasikala. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam / state politics / Tamil Nadu Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

Churning in the AIADMK becomes evident in Tamil Nadu Assembly

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Churning in the AIADMK becomes evident in Tamil Nadu Assembly

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