Tamil Nadu CM meets Modi amid speculation on merger

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Friday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid growing speculation over the merger of the two factions of the AIADMK in the state.

Mr Palaniswami, however, told reporters here that he only discussed with Mr Modi the state’s demand that it be exempted from the purview of the all-India medical college entrance test, Neet (National Eligibility and Entrance Test).

The CM, along with Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M. Thambidurai, met the PM at his office in Parliament House. Stalled negotiations on the merger of the two AIADMK factions picked up again on Thursday after a meeting presided over by Mr Palaniswami questioned the appointment of TTV Dhinakaran as the AIADMK’s deputy general secretary.

A resolution passed in the meeting said Mr Dhinakaran’s elevation to the post, hours before his aunt Sasikala Natarajan was taken to a jail in Bengaluru, was against party bylaws, a condition which former chief minister O. Panneerselvam’s faction of the party had pushed for a merger.

Mr Panneerselvam, the head of the rival faction, is also in Delhi. Both he and the CM attended Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu’s oath-taking ceremony on Friday morning.

Mr Panneerselvam is also trying for an appointment with PM Modi, sources here said. Members of his faction will also meet officials of the Election Commission, and the Panneerselvam faction would present a copy of the Thursday’s resolution to the EC.