AIADMK set to announce CM candidate for Tamil Nadu 2021 Assembly polls

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AAIDMK) will announce its chief ministerial candidate for Tamil Nadu 2021 Assembly polls on Wednesday.

Either Chief Minister Edappadi K Palswami (EPS) or Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (OPS) is likely to be fielded for the CM's post from the party. The duo has reached the party office.

Meanwhile, party workers gathered at the AIADMK office in Chennai in anticipation of the announcement.

On October 1, Tamil Nadu Minister D Jayakumar had sought to play down reports of differences between Chief Minister E Palswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, saying that there are no differences between the two.On reports that Panneerselvam earlier skipped the meeting called by the Chief Minister and met party members, he said, "He is our party orgsation coordinator, so what is the problem if he meets party members. There could be many reasons for not attending the Chief Minister's meeting, like meeting medical experts etc. But please don't link it to politics."Earlier, sources told that during the AIADMK's executive party meet on September 28, the discussions for party's Chief Ministerial face was debated for more than five hours with Palswami and Panneerselvam in the race.During the meeting, it was also felt that in case the current Chief Minister was not named as the candidate for the next year's Assembly elections it would make the party and its government in the state a subject of ridicule for the Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).Palswami got backing from senior leaders S Semmalai, P Thangam, CV Shanmugam and Natham R Viswanathan in the meeting.A top source in the party, who himself was earlier backing Panneerselvam before the merger, told that the debate around the Chief Minister post candidate should be considered settled now with most of the leaders agreeing with the final outcome "as of now" to Palswami as a candidate for 2021 elections.

( With inputs from ANI )