AIADMK Rebels Back Chief Minister Vijay's Government, Leaving EPS in a Miserable Position

Chennai: Alleging AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) wanted to become Chief Minister with the backing of the arch rival DMK, senior AIADMK rebel leader C Ve Shanmugam, on Tuesday said majority of the party’s legislators have resolved to extend support to Chief Minister and TVK leader C Joseph Vijay’s Government. Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? The rebel group, having support of a majority of the 47 legislators, also elected S P Velumani, the party Coimbatore strongman and one-time EPS confidante, as leader of the AIADMK Legislature Party and former Minister C Vijayabaskar as the Whip. A letter to this effect was already handed over to the Pro-tem Speaker Karuppaiah on Monday evening. The move has pushed EPS to a miserable position, where he has the support of only about 17 or so legislators. His faction had on Monday morning given a letter to the Pro-tem Speaker stating EPS was elected the AIADMK Legislature Party leader. Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? The Free Press Journal had reported on May 10, 2026 that Shanmugam along with regional strongmen S P Velumani and C Vijayabaskar had toyed with the idea of backing the TVK, soon after the results. The report also mentioned about EPS’s outreach to the DMK to form the Government to keep Vijay out of power. Addressing journalists in Chennai, ahead of the Assembly session to elect the new Speaker, Shanmugam said: “The AIADMK was formed opposing the DMK. In the last 53 years – for two or three generations - our politics has revolved around opposition to the DMK. At a consultative meeting after our electoral defeat, the general secretary (EPS) placed before us a proposal that an AIADMK Government with him as Chief Minister could be formed with the support of the DMK. The majority of the MLAs, almost all, did not agree. We were shell-shocked. How could he have the heart to say this? If we join with the DMK, the AIADMK will vanish. We said ‘no’.” According to Shanmugam, accepting the people’s verdict, where “a mandate was given to TVK”, a meeting of the MLAs of the AIADMK had resolved to extend support to Vijay’s Government. He did not specify if the TVK had accepted the offer and under what terms and conditions. Having lost successive elections since 2017, Shanmugam said the AIADMK collectively accepted responsibility for this without placing the blame on any individual. “Now our duty and concern is the AIADMK founded by MGR and safeguarded by Jayalalithaa, must be saved and rejuvenated. Let us know! 👂 What type of content would you like to see from us this year? We need to hold consultations and introspect on the reasons for the defeat,” he said while declaring the party had exited the NDA, as part of which it had fought the Assembly elections. The rebels demanded that EPS must convene the party general body where everyone could unitedly participate and introspect what went wrong and why so that the party could be rejuvenated and work for restoring “Amma’s Government” in the future. Chipping in, Velumani urged the media not to “defame us” by claiming we are trying the split the AIADMK. “We don’t have any such intention. Our fathers were in the party. We have faced successive defeats and it has gone out of hand. AIADMK will not split at any point. We will not be the reason for it. The general secretary must convene the general body,” he added. (Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)