Senior AIADMK leader and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai has urged party General Secretary VK Sasikala to take over as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

Just two days after Sasikala took over as the ruling party’s chief, Thambidurai joined a chorus party functionaries to openly urge her to also assume the role of Chief Minister.

In a statement, Thambidurai said the posts of party General Secretary and Chief Minister should be held by the same person.

After the demise of J Jayalalithaa, Sasikala’s predecessor and former Chief Minister, “when everybody was anxious and worried as to what would happen to the party and crores of party cadres, respected Chinanamma [Sasikala] has come to rescue all of us like a lighthouse”, he said.

The leadership of ‘Chinamma’ alone could continue to implement the several welfare schemes that were initiated by party founder MG Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa.

“At the same time, we have seen that people in India have not accepted the situation where the leadership of the party is in one hand and the leadership of the government is in another hand,” Thambidurai said, in a reference to the goings-on in the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh. History had evidenced that some governments had been pushed to face several hurdles, rendered incapable of delivering on promises and lost their credibility among the people, when the leadership of the party and that of the government rested in the hands of two persons, he said.

comment COMMENT NOW