Police officers stand guard at the AIADMK headquarters on Llyods Road in Royapettah, Chennai on Thursday (May 14, 2026). | Photo credit: R. Ragu
A day after the split in the AIADMK legislature during the vote on the trust motion filed by the TVK government, both factions on Thursday (May 14, 2026) submitted petitions to Assembly Speaker JCD Prabhakar demanding legitimacy and seeking dismissal of the petition filed by the other party.
AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami and leaders of the rebel camp — SP Velumani leadership, C.Ve. Shanmugam and C. Vijayabaskar — traded accusations in a statement and at a press conference.
‘act of betrayal’
In a statement issued in the evening, Mr. Palaniswami urged the party cadre to defeat the nefarious acts of individuals who he said were monitoring the posts. Pointing out that some AIADMK MLAs (25 in all) voted for the government, he said it was an act of “betrayal”.
However, Mr. Vijayabaskar said that he was elected as the whip of the AIADMK legislature party and their representation sought the disqualification of 22 MLAs (who voted against the motion) for defecting. He said Mr. Palaniswami and others had defied what he called his “whip” issued for the vote held on Wednesday.
Two senior AIADMK functionaries, out of loyalty to Mr. Palaniswami, submitted a petition in the Speaker’s office.
In a related development, five senior AIADMK functionaries, owing allegiance to Mr. Palaniswami, submitted a representation to the Governor’s Secretary at the Lok Bhavan.
‘Action invalid’
Mr. Velumani told reporters that all the steps taken by Mr. Palaniswami were invalid. He said Mr. Palaniswami should not take any “unnecessary steps” and instead convene the party’s general council to assess the party’s electoral defeat.
Another senior functionary, Natham R. Viswanathan, said that Mr. Palaniswami had no power to remove the functionaries from their posts.
Published – 14 May 2026 22:13 IST
