AIADMK rival factions reconcile two weeks after Legislature Party split

Nearly two weeks after the vertical split of the AIADMK Legislature Party, the rival factions — one headed by general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami and the other by former Minister S.P. Velumani — buried the hatchet and arrived at a truce on Wednesday (May 27, 2026).

The rebel MLAs headed by Mr. Velumani also presented letters to the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly J.C.D. Prabhakar at the Secretariat, requesting to condone their act of voting contrary to the direction issued by party whip Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy during the vote of confidence of the Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay-led government in the Assembly on May 10.

The Speaker, while speaking to journalists, confirmed the receipt of the letters from the AIADMK MLAs. He said he would go through the petitions submitted earlier, as well as those submitted on Wednesday, and announce his decision on Thursday (May 28).

Speaking to reporters after meeting Mr. Prabhakar, Mr. Velumani said both factions had withdrawn the previous petitions presented separately to the Speaker seeking the disqualification of the legislators of the other group.

Emergence of rift

It all began with the vertical split of the AIADMK Legislature Party during the vote of confidence in the Assembly on May 10. A group of 25 rebel legislators headed by Mr. Velumani voted in favour of the motion of confidence, while 22 MLAs headed by Mr. Palaniswami voted against it.

Following the split, both factions submitted petitions to the Speaker seeking disqualification of the MLAs of the other group. Meanwhile, on May 25, three MLAs from the Mr. Velumani faction — Maragatham Kumaravel (Madurantakam), S. Jayakumar (Perundurai), and P. Sathyabama (Dharapuram) — resigned from their MLA posts and later joined the ruling TVK.

On the same day, five other rebel MLAs — S.M. Sukumar (Arcot), P. Hari Bhaskar (Anthiyur), K. Mohan (Panruti), Dileepan Jaishankar (Sankarankoil), and N.S.N. Nataraj (Kangayam) — switched their loyalties to Mr. Palaniswami’s side.

The next day, another rebel MLA Esakki Subaya resigned from his MLA post and later joined the TVK, while P. Balakrishna Reddy (Hosur) extended support to Mr. Palaniswami. With this series of resignations and switching sides, the strength of the rebel camp was reduced from 25 to 15. On Wednesday, both factions arrived at a truce. Barring senior functionary C.Ve. Shanmugam, all the rebel MLAs met the Speaker.

‘Only difference of opinion’

Mr. Velumani said, “There was no division or split among us. We only had some differences of opinion. We have urged the general secretary [Mr. Palaniswami] to constitute a committee to introspect on the electoral defeats faced by the party. He said he would take it up step by step.”

The former Minister also said there had been various claims that the 25 AIADMK MLAs voted in favour of the TVK government in return for Ministerial berths and other posts. “We did not ask for any posts. They [TVK] also made it clear that no such arrangement was made.” To a question about Mr. Shanmugam not joining them during their meeting with the Speaker, Mr. Velumani said “He is also with all of us.”

Earlier in the day, most of the rebel MLAs, including Mr. Velumani, called on Mr. Palaniswami at his residence in Chennai. However, Mr. Shanmugam and C. Vijayabaskar did not accompany them.