Chennai: PWD minister Aadhav Arjuna on Tuesday questioned the legitimacy of AIADMK under general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, in the wake of an exodus of senior functionaries, triggering a heated exchange between TVK and AIADMK in the assembly.The debate began when Palaniswami flayed the defection of a few MLAs soon after winning elections. “It takes at least 6,000 party workers to ensure the victory of an MLA. When an MLA resigns and quits the party immediately after the election to join another party, the hard work of party cadres goes waste,” he said.Responding, Aadhav said TVK did not recognise the present AIADMK as the party founded and led by former chief ministers M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa. “It was Amma’s rule till 2017. But after that, it is not the real AIADMK. We don’t accept that,” he said.Aadhav accused AIADMK of surrendering Tamil Nadu’s interests to the Centre after Jayalalithaa’s death. “As long as Amma was ruling, NEET, GST and CAA were not introduced. After her death, you surrendered Tamil Nadu’s rights to Delhi,” he said.He said AIADMK MLAs would not have crossed over if they had confidence in Palaniswami. “AIADMK cadres have completely lost confidence in your leadership. Loyalists of MGR and Jayalalithaa have therefore joined TVK,” Aadhav said, arguing that elected representatives and functionaries were free to join another party after losing faith in their leadership.AIADMK MLAs protested the remarks and demanded that Speaker J C D Prabhakar expunge them from the proceedings. The Speaker, however, took no action.Electricity minister R Nirmalkumar later invoked the 2017 Koovathur episode, when AIADMK MLAs were housed at a resort amid efforts to prevent them from switching allegiance to the faction led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam. “AIADMK MLAs joining TVK is not like the Koovathur incident,” he said.
