Amid the intra-party political skirmish between the factions of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister Pannerselvam on the race for the Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming assembly polls, the state ruling ADMK party has, on Friday, issued a new order to the party MLAs to be present in Chennai on October 6. 

On Friday, the party has ordered its MLAs to be present in Chennai on October 6, a day before the party is expected to announce the Chief Ministerial candidate for the upcoming polls and the internal communication from the party at the high time of tussle has stirred the speculations around both the leaders as the fight for CM has been getting intensified with senior leaders and ministers held hectic parleys between the factions to reach consensus. 

The 'behind the scenes' tussle for the CM race had come on the board daylight when the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister had run into heated debates over the CM race in the party's executive committee meeting that held in Chennai on September 28. 

When it was speculated that the party would announce the CM candidate, the heated arguments between the leaders and slogans from their respective supporters had led the party to conclude the meeting with attaining no consensus. 

After the meeting which deepened the drift in the party, senior leader KP Munusamy had addressed the reporters and said that the party would be announcing the Chief Ministerial candidate for the 2021 polls on October 7. Since the announcement, both the factions are in the spotlight with the leaders discussing with their respective supporters in enhancing their base and bid for winning the CM race.

With causing uncertainty among the party supporters and allied parties on facing the assembly polls to take on the rival DMK, the ADMK party has been witnessing a staunch war of words between the factions to ensure that either of them won't lose their control on the power and party at the high time when the state has been expecting the release of Jayalalithaa's closest aide VK Sasikala from Bengaluru Central prison. 

It was speculated that Sasikala's re-entry into the party would have her dominance and she would be coming out of prison before the elections and it would cause a political storm within the party, ahead of which both the leaders are engaging in a tug-of-war to keep their stronghold in the party. According to the reports close to the developments, Pannerselvam has been demanding Edappadi Palaniswami to name him as the party's general secretary while EPS can continue to be the Chief Minister. 

As the tussle goes on, the party is less likely to have a place for consensus when it has been queued up against the allegations levied by the opposition parties. With such developments, it has been expected that the party would be announcing its Chief Ministerial candidate on October 7. Though many state ministers maintain there are no tussles between the leaders and the CM candidate would be announced on October 7, the reports say that it would be less likely as the party hasn't reached any grounds of truce to show the sign of strong unity and consensus between the leaders. The party's fresh order to its MLAs had further stirred the speculations on what the party is going to unveil during the next meeting.