AIADMK’s Rajya Sabha M.P. Dr. Maitreyan has reiterated that his Facebook comment that though the AIADMK’s two factions had merged, the merging of ‘minds’ of party cadres hadn’t yet occurred was not his personal opinion but a reality felt by cadres.

The two factions of AIADMK led by OPS and EPS merged a few weeks back to forma ‘unified’ AIADMK but the merger process has been marred by Sasikala’s nephew Dinakaran’s attempt to keep the dissident faction alive. After the merger, EPS continued to remain the chief-minister while OPS was made the deputy chief-minister. Both would jointly guide the party as convener and deputy convenor.

There were rumours stating that OPS wasn’t satisfied with the present arrangement as the files signed by him are being counter-signed by Edapadi K. Palaniswami. He was also reportedly aware that he wasn’t in total control of the party. After the merger, only OPS and Ma Foi Pandiarajan were admitted to the Cabinet, thus making leaders and MLAs of the erstwhile faction feel like ‘refugees’.

Commenting on his Facebook account about the state of mind of the OPS faction’s leaders, Rajya Sabha M.P. Maitreyan had said that ‘though the factions had merged, the minds didn’t seem to have merged’. This triggered a controversy with Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambithurai asserting that Maitreyan’s comments were his own and didn’t reflect the feelings of party cadres.

Taking Thambithurai on, Maitreyan said on his Facebok account: “Contrary to what Thambithurai has said about my comments, I would once again like to reiterate that those were not my comments alone as I only reflected the feelings of party cadres!”