Madurai (Tamil Nadu), March 7 The AIADMK under the current leadership is not the party that was once nurtured by the late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, but has been "illegitimately" taken over by Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, who have joined the DMK, the party claimed on Saturday.
Palaniswami altered the party bylaws established by the founder M G Ramachandran and "stole" the rights of the party members, Panneerselvam alleged. He was only interested in self-preservation, he claimed.
"The current AIADMK is going against the Dravidian principles and social justice policy of former Chief Minister C N Annadurai. Realising that continuing in the AIADMK would be against my self-respect, I decided to join the DMK, accepting the leadership of M K Stalin," the former Chief Minister said.
Panneerselvam and his son O P Ravindranath joined the DMK in the presence of its president and Chief Minister M K Stalin in Chennai on February 27.
He hailed Stalin as "the king of victory" and said he was proud to merge his AIADMK workers' rights retrieval committee with the DMK today.
Speaking at a function held in Thirumangalam where his supporters joined the DMK in the presence of Stalin, Panneerselvam said "Palaniswami will be defeated in the upcoming Assembly election."