Chennai: AIADMK’s rebel leaders were back in action on Monday, holding closed door meetings in Chennai, after the party’s drubbing in Madurantakam and Dharapuram bypolls.In a bid to mount pressure on AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami to convene the general council meeting, the rebel camp is planning to stay away from the party’s 55th foundation day celebrations and public meetings scheduled for Oct 17, 22 and 23.AIADMK sources said former ministers S P Velumani, C Ve Shanmugam, P Thangamani and Natham Viswanathan were discussing their next course of action for the past few days. Former higher education minister K P Anbazhagan has also joined the meeting on Monday at Velumani’s MRC Nagar residence in Chennai.Sources in the rebel camp confirmed the meeting but remained tight-lipped about their next move. The leaders are exploring ways to regroup dissenting MLAs and senior functionaries to challenge Palaniswami’s leadership citing party’s continuing poor electoral performance, an AIADMK functionary in the rebel camp said.Anbazhagan, however, played down the meeting, describing it as a casual interaction. “I have not met Velumani for the past one and half months, after the assembly session got over. Hence I visited his house,” he said.He was non-committal about attending AIADMK’s public meeting in Dharmapuri district as part of party’s foundation day celebrations. Anbazhagan said he would pay floral tributes to the statues of party founder M G Ramachandran and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa at the Palacode bus stand.The rebel leaders want Palaniswami to convene the general council meeting and discuss about AIADMK’s repeated electoral defeats.After a poor show in the assembly polls, 25 rebel MLAs supported TVK in the motion of confidence in the state assembly in May. The rift was evident throughout the assembly session when the rebels appeared indifferent towards Palaniswami. In the bypolls too, neither Velumani nor Shanmugam were involved in the campaigning work.On Sunday, when Palaniswami took a dig at chief minister C Joseph Vijay accusing him of attempting to claim credit for the Vadapalani – Poonamallee metro rail project, S P Velumani thanked the CM for inaugurating the project.The twin bypoll defeats have sharpened questions over Palaniswami’s leadership, particularly after the AIADMK finished third in both Dharapuram and Madurantakam, constituencies it had won in the April 2026 assembly election.A senior leader in the Palaniswami camp said the rebel camp would not succeed in its efforts to brow beat the AIADMK general secretary. “All the current district secretaries and senior functionaries were appointed by Palaniswami. They will stand by him,” the leader said.
