All is well in AIADMK, says Sengottaiyan

The AIADMK is “on the right path and there is no issue” within the organisation, former School Education and Transport Minister and veteran AIADMK leader, K.A. Sengottaiyan told The Hindu on Monday (April 7, 2025). 

The AIADMK is “on the right path and there is no issue” within the organisation, former School Education and Transport Minister and veteran AIADMK leader, K.A. Sengottaiyan told The Hindu on Monday (April 7, 2025). 

Responding to queries from this correspondent, Mr. Sengottaiyan, who has been in the limelight for his reported differences with party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami, confirmed his recent meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah (in New Delhi) and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (in Chennai). This is the first time that the former minister has shared his account of these meetings with any media organisation, ever since reports surfaced in certain sections of the media regarding his interactions.

“I met him [Mr. Shah] in the interests of the party,” the 77-year-old former Minister quipped, without elaborating on it. When asked whether his meeting had anything to do with the AIADMK-BJP alliance issue, he replied that “it is the leadership that takes a call on such a matter.” He met the Finance Minister to represent “an issue” concerning the Goods and Services Tax (GST). 

Did Mr. Palaniswami have prior knowledge of his meeting with Mr. Shah? “My colleagues do call on Union Ministers. Recently, [Rajya Sabha MP] M. Thambi Durai too met her [Ms. Sitharaman],” the former Minister said.

Mr. Sengottaiyan, who first entered the Assembly in 1977 from Sathyamangalam, was  elected to the House eight more times — 1980, 1984, 1989, 1991, 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2021. At present, he is representing Gobichettypalayam in Erode district. When Jayalalithaa was Chief Minister, he held the portfolios of Transport, Agriculture, and Information Technology. In the Cabinet headed by Mr. Palaniswami, he was School Education Minister.  

In the meantime, on Sunday (April 6, 2025), sections of the Tamil media quoted the party’s spokesperson Vaigaichelvan as saying in Kancheepuram that Mr. Palaniswami would decide whether to take any disciplinary action against Mr. Sengottaiyan. “I do not want to waste time talking about those who have no influence,” he said.

The differences between Mr. Sengottaiyan and Mr. Palaniswami, both belonging to the Vellala Gounder community in the western belt of the State, came to the fore when the former chose not to attend a function organised by a body of farmers to felicitate Mr. Palaniswami at Annur in Coimbatore district in February 2025. The reason cited by the former Minister was that the images of former Chief Ministers M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa were not featured in the invitation and banners put up for the event.