AIADMK to hold party's Foundation Day celebrations from Oct 17-20

Chennai: The AIADMK, the principal opposition party in Tamil Nadu, will conduct its 53rd Foundation Day celebrations from October 17 to 20.

Party General Secretary and Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, Edappadi K.Palaniswami (EPS), will inaugurate the celebrations at Kancheepuram on October 17.

In a statement on Saturday, EPS said he was overwhelmed that the AIADMK, founded by iconic leader M. G. Ramachandran (MGR ) and taken forward by 'Amma' Jayalalithaa, was celebrating its 53rd Foundation Day.

The party will conduct public programmes across the state.

The AIADMK leader also said the celebrations would be held in Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh.

AIADMK leaders like K. P. Munusamy, Dindigul C. Sreenivasan and Natham R. Viswanathan will address people in the state.

Party cadres and leaders will garland the statues of MGR and J. Jayalalithaa.

On the occasion, beneficial aids and food will also be distributed by the party cadres.

The AIADMK is facing an uphill task to come to power in Tamil Nadu after it lost the 2021 Assembly elections. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK and its allies drew a blank.

The BJP- AIADMK alliance of Tamil Nadu had fallen apart after K. Annamalai became the state president of the BJP. This led to major losses for the BJP and AIADMK and both the parties could not win a seat in the Lok Sabha elections.

C. Rajeev, Director, Centre for Policy and Development Studies, a think tank based out of Chennai told IANS: "If the BJP and AIADMK were in an alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, both would have been in a win-win situation and the NDA could have garnered a minimum of ten seats."

The AIADMK is facing a major internal problem after the party expelled its senior leader and former Chief Minister of Tamils Nadu, O. Panneerselvam, late Jayalalithaa's close aide V. K. Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran from the party. This led to the AIADMK dividing into different groups thus weakening itself.

Sources in the AIADMK told IANS that unofficial discussions are taking place between the various factions of the party for a probable merger between the various factions.