Chennai: AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday appointed Natham R Viswanathan and S P Velumani as party deputy general secretaries, and Varasur A Arunachalam as party headquarters secretary. The appointments have signalled an improvement in ties with the leaders who had patched up with EPS after rebelling against him. Senior leaders P Thangamani, K P Anbazhagan, R Kamaraj, K C Veeramani, and several other functionaries, whose party postings were stripped for revolting against him after the assembly polls, have been appointed as headquarters secretaries. AIADMK men said that this was a reconciliation exercise while it was also aimed at arresting a further exodus of functionaries to TVK.Meanwhile, EPS has removed the supporters of former minister C Vijayabaskar, who are all set to join TVK next week. He replaced them with new office bearers in Pudukottai district. EPS has also restructured Tirupatur Urban, Tirupatur Rural, Coimbatore Urban-South, Trichy Rural-South, Thanjavur-Central, Pudukkottai North, and Pudukkottai South, creating 26 new district units and appointing district secretaries.
