The AIADMK on Tuesday hurtled towards a rupture, with deep differences emerging among the 47 newly elected MLAs over who should become the legislature party leader and on offering support to chief minister and TVK leader Joseph Vijay in the floor test in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday.

The intense tussle emerged on a day the TVK MLA from the Thousand Lights constituency, J.C.D. Prabhakar, and the party’s Thuraiyur MLA, M. Ravishankar, were elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively.

A larger group of around 30 AIADMK MLAs, headed by former minister and ex-Rajya Sabha member C.Ve. Shanmugam, party headquarters secretary S.P. Velumani and former minister C. Vijay Bhaskar, openly defied party leader and former chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) over the choice of AIADMK legislature party leader and support to the TVK government.

The faction led by Shanmugam, claiming the support of 30 MLAs, sent a letter to the Speaker’s office stating that they had elected Velumani as leader of the AIADMK legislature party and C. Vijay Bhaskar as the party whip in the House.

Supporters of EPS shot off a separate letter to the Speaker, seeking recognition of Palaniswami as the unanimously elected leader of the AIADMK legislature party with veteran MLA ‘Agri’ S.S. Krishnamoorthy as the party’s whip.

Things came to a head on Tuesday after the conclusion of the elections for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Interacting with the media at the Assembly complex after the House session, Shanmugam claimed that Palaniswami had put forth a proposal suggesting that an AIADMK government be formed with the support of the DMK and sought the consent of the MLAs, who rejected the idea and decided to extend support to the TVK.

“We have fought the DMK for the last 54 years and here comes such an unthinkable proposal, which we straight rejected,” Shanmugam said.

He said members of the AIADMK legislature party, who opposed EPS on this issue, later passed a resolution and elected Velumani as the legislature party leader.

“After the elections, we are not part of the NDA,” Shanmugam said, underscoring how the AIADMK under EPS’s leadership had been continuously losing elections since 2019.

Urging Palaniswami to convene a meeting of the AIADMK general council to discuss the reasons behind such consecutive defeats and take remedial steps, Shanmugam said they respected the people’s mandate in favour of Vijay-led TVK.

Shanmugam hinted that the AIADMK legislature party would extend support to the TVK in the floor test.

Shortly thereafter, the AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to Palaniswami met the Speaker. Their spokesperson and former minister O.S. Manian rubbished Shanmugam’s claims, terming the allegations as spadework for inclusion in the TVK ministry with cabinet berths.

Manian claimed that their letter informing about Palaniswami’s election as the AIADMK legislature party leader had been signed by all 47 elected MLAs, and that the ball was now in the Speaker’s court.

AIADMK party whip Krishnamurthy told reporters that Palaniswami had issued a directive ordering all party MLAs to vote against the TVK government in the floor test. Legal action will be taken against MLAs who defy the whip, he added.

Vijay on Tuesday made another round of courtesy calls on leaders of political parties supporting the TVK, including the Congress, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), Shanmugam and VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan.

Thirumavalavan told reporters that he had heard of another proposal to keep the TVK out of power — the DMK and the AIADMK backing a government led by the VCK chief. “That proposal too would have been unworkable as Tamil Nadu is not yet ready to accept a Dalit as a chief minister,” Thirumavalavan said, explaining why he did not support the idea.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly now has 233 members with Vijay relinquishing his Tiruchy (East) seat before taking oath as chief minister on Sunday. Vijay, who also won the Perambur constituency, now needs the support of 117 MLAs to win the trust vote.

The Madurai bench of Madras High Court, in an interim order earlier on Tuesday, restrained TVK MLA R. Seenivasa Sethupathy, who won against incumbent DMK minister K.R. Periyakaruppan from the Tirupattur Assembly constituency by just one vote, from voting during the floor test, on a petition filed by the latter.

The TVK MLA has moved the Supreme Court against the high court order.

Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Sethupathy, requested the urgent listing of the appeal.

“We will list it tomorrow,” Chief Justice Surya Kant said.