O. Panneerselvam

The rival O Panneerselvam camp is also meeting separately here to discuss the future course of action, sources in the faction said.

Senior leader in the VK Sasikala faction and Cooperation Minister, Sellur K Raju, said Chief Minister K Palaniswami has constituted a team of "senior ministers" for the purpose.

The Commission conveyed its "displeasure" to the V K Sasikala and O Panneerselvam factions and advised them not to repeat "such acts" in future.

AIADMK Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran said he did not expect such an outcome and that he will win the RK Nagar bypoll and get the poll symbol back.

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday made public the medical report of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa to “put to rest speculation surrounding her hospitalisation, treatment and death”.

The O Panneerselvam faction today welcomed the Election Commission rejecting AIADMK's response on the election of VK Sasikala as its General Secretary as the letter was signed by her nephew TTV Dinakaran, saying it was their "first victory."

The ruling AIADMK today took strong exception to certain remarks made against late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa by DMK leader MK Stalin and sought an "open apology" from him.

The O Panneerselvam camp has appointed sitting MLA Semmalai as the party whip and sent a letter to the Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal to this effect.

A vote of confidence or a vote of conscience? This is the question running in the minds of the seven and a half crore people of Tamil Nadu, as they await the crucial floor test in the Legislative Assembly on Saturday.

Governor C Vidyasagar Rao administered the oath of office and secrecy to 63-year-old Palaniswami, a party veteran from western Tamil Nadu, at the head of a 31-member Cabinet at a ceremony in the Raj Bhavan this evening.

E Palaniswami's name for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's post cropped up just an hour after VK Sasikala was pronounced guilty by the Supreme Court in the 1996 disproportionate assets case on Wednesday.

Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasgar Rao will meet this evening the newly elected AIADMK Legislature Party Leader Edappadi K Palaniswami, who is expected to stake claim to form government.

Sasikala belongs to Mannargudi town of Tamil Nadu. She became friends with Jayalalithaa, then a successful film star and a rising politician, in 1976.

Supreme Court has convicted AIADMK General Secretary VK Sasikala, who has been engaged in a tussle (with colleague O Panneerselvam) for the Tamil Nadu chief minister‘s post over the past fortnight, in the 20-year-old disproportionate asset case and sentenced her to 4 years of imprisonment.

Political uncertainty in Tamil Nadu started months ago when the late chief minister Jayalalithaa was hospitalised, and peaked when she died, leaving Sasikala and perennial acting CM O Panneerselvam to scrap over the succession.

The Supreme Court sentenced the AIADMK general secretary, who has been staking claim to the Tamil Nadu chief minister's post, to four years in jail and asked her to surrender immediately.

To a question on 11 MPs switching over to the camp of Panneerselvam, Vaigai Chelvan expressed confidence that they would return to the Sasikala fold.

Four Lok Sabha MPs--Jaisingh Thiyagaraj Natterjee (Tuticorin), Senguttuvan (Vellore), R P Marutharaja (Perambalur) and S Rajendran (Villupuram) met Panneerselvam at his Greenways residence this morning and pledged support to him, taking the number of MPs backing him in the fight to 10.