Sealed with a handshake: Factions of Tamil Nadu's AIADMK announce merger

The two warring factions of Tamil Nadu's All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) jointly announced a merger in Chennai on Monday.

The announcement was made by the leaders of the two factions, O Panneerselvam and Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, at the AIADMK party headquarters.

It was also announce that Panneerselvam will become the convener of the party and will head a 11 member committee that will monitor day-to-day functions of the party while Palaniswami will become the co-convener of the party.

Palaniswami said that their priority will be to retrieve the 'two leaves' election symbol which had been frozen by the Election Commission.

According to the Raj Bhavan, Panneerselvam will be sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and will be given important portfolios including finance, urban development and housing among others.

Pannerselvam and Ma Foi K Pandiarajan will be sworn-into the cabinet at the Raj Bhavan later on Monday.

Addressing the media, Panneerselvam lauded the party cadre and said that they now have "the strength of more than a crore people."

Palaniswami thanked the party workers and said that the two leaders will visit former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's memorial to seek blessings.

"We will fulfill the promises made by Amma J Jayalalithaa. She had said that the party would last for over a 100 years after her and we will make sure that happens," Palaniswami said.

The fate of Jayalalithaa's jailed aide, Sasikala, remains uncertain. Media reports had suggested that Panneerselvam wanted Sasikala to be expelled. Sasikala had taken take over the leadership of the party after Jayalalithaa's death last December.

Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) president Amit Shah cancelled his visit to the state. Shah had previously urged the two factions of the AIADMK to reconcile.

On August 10, following a high-level meeting chaired by Palaniswami, the AIADMK said that Sasikala's nephew TTV Dinakaran's appointment as the deputy general secretary is "illegal", a move that Dinakaran rejected.

On August 17, CM Palaniswami met two of the key demands of the Panneerselvam-faction, by ordering a probe into the death of Jayalalithaa and announced that the late chief minister's Poes Garden residence will be converted into a memorial.

The party had split two months after the death of chief minister J Jayalalithaa when O Panneerselvam resigned as the chief minister and accused the Sasikala-led faction of trying to control power of the party.