A potential revolt is brewing within the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as senior leader K A Sengottaiyan boycotted a farmers' felicitation event for party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) in Tamil Nadu's Erode on Sunday. Sengottaiyan, a former Minister for School Education, cited the absence of pictures of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran (MGR) at the event as the reason for his boycott.
"MGR and Jayalalithaa gave life to me. I learned about the absence of their pictures three days ago. They did not include them, so I did not attend the event," he said.
He, however, said that it is not a "boycott", adding that he just "expressed his sentiment".
The AIADMK has dismissed Sengottaiyan's claims.
Senior leader and former Minister D Jayakumar said, "The event was apolitical and organised by farmers to thank Edappadi K Palaniswami for executing the Avinashi Athikadavu project. Organisers avoided pictures of other AIADMK leaders as there are farmers from all parties."
Sengottaiyan was once tipped to become the AIADMK chief after Jayalalithaa's death. But VK Sasikala, who took over the party for a short period, chose Edappadi K Palaniswami instead before she served the four-year jail term in the disproportionate assets case.
However, he suffered successive poll defeats since Jayalalithaa's demise.
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