Updated by admin on
Sunday, September 28, 2014 11:24 AM IST
Chennai:
The AIADMK legislature party will meet in Chennai at 3 p.m. on September 28, 2014, to elect its new leader who would immediately thereafter be appointed as chief minister by the State Governor. If all goes well, the swearing in of the new CM itself could take place later on Sunday
evening or Monday morning so as to prevent a vacuum in the State.
A team of four senior ministers including O Panneerselvam met AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa at the Bengaluru prison on Sunday morning to get instructions from their leader regarding future course of action in the State and in the party. Jayalalithaa is said to have instructed them to immediately meet Governor K Rosaiah in Chennai on Sunday and discuss urgent steps to be taken.
They would also meet a team of officials including the chief secretary and DGP regarding fiollow-up action.
Jayalalithaa is also said to have asked the party seniors to convene an urgent meeting of the AIADMK legislature party to elect its new leader in her view of her absence as it may take several days for the Karnataka High Court to even hear her application to suspend the sentence of the Special Court or grant her bail.
Jayalalithaa is believed to have given the name of what the AIADMK considers to be an interim CM till her return.
Though names of former chief secretary Sheela Balakrishnan, Visalakshi Nedunchezhiyan, wife of former finance minister V R Nedunchezhiyan, AIADMK MP Navaneethakrishnan and minister Balaji are doing the rounds, the front-runner seems to be number two in the cabinet, O Panneerselvam.
AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa has asked her party ministers and MLAs to get back to Chennai and elect a new chief minister (name kept secret) on Sunday, September 28, 2014, so as to complete the mandatory exercise of installing a new CM in her place. The ministers and MLAs were waiting outside the Bengaluru central prison to get a sense of how to proceed since she has been convicted and jailed.
The name will be conveyed to the MLAs at a meeting of the AIADMK legislature party on Sunday, where the new leader will be elected unopposed, and thereafter a meeting with the Governor will take place for the installation of the new CM.
The meeting will, no doubt, adopt a resolution hailing Jayalalithaa's stewardship of the party and the State and express the hope that she would return soon, and get her name cleared, and resume the post of CM. The installation of the new CM would also be immediate so as not to allow a vacuum which could hurt the ruling party's image and leave scope for mischief. Also, the Union Home ministry is understood to have communicated to the state governor to take steps for return of normalcy in the State.
