The escalating tensions in the ADMK over the tussle for the post of the Tamil Nadu Opposition Leader between the top two leaders have seemingly been progressing towards the end as the party has been showing lighter signs of a key for defusing the dispute in naming the captain of leading the party in the current assembly as the ADMK enters as the opposition party after facing a debacle in the recently-held elections. 

The latest tussle between the top two leaders -Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam was unfolded last Friday when the party has convened the meeting at the party's headquarters to name the Opposition leader and the party's whip in the assembly. In the albeit of facing an unprecedented defeat in the elections due to the lack of stable leadership and anti-incumbency wave, the leaders are not willing to fix the pothole in the leadership as they both have the desire to control the party. 

Ever since the party was vested in the hands of dual leadership, no major decision was taken leniently and unanimously. From the Chief Ministerial pick to the alliance, the ADMK had gone through the episodes of tensions between the two leaders and hectic parleys to reach the consensus. In line with that, the latest one which apparently displayed a deep political divide within the party is that the tussle over getting elected as the Tamil Nadu Opposition Leader. 

On Friday, hours after DMK's MK Stalin sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the ADMK had showered light on its intra-party furor after the supporters of top two leaders had involved in a war of words and arguments against the opposite faction and demanded that the party must be led by the single leadership. While the supporters had argued with each other to keep their allegiance to their respective leaders, the senior leaders of the party had held a discussion to mitigate the tensions. 

In the meeting with the newly elected ADMK MLAs, both the top two leaders had staked their claim to become the opposition leader and Panneerselvam had directly blamed Edappadi Palaniswami for the election defeat while Palaniswami had said that he had won his constituency in a huge margin and he also secured a decent victory for the party from its stronghold Kongu belt-the western region of the state. 

Panneerselvam has slammed Palaniswami's leadership for losing the southern districts of the state. He claimed that Palaniswami's move of providing a reservation quota for the Vanniyar community had heavily disturbed major communities in Southern Tamil Nadu due to which the party had lost the voter base. As there was no ground of reaching a consensus on Friday, the party has said that it will again meet up on Monday to reach a resolution. ADMK leader D Jayakumar has said that the party would reach a unanimous decision in electing the Opposition leader. 

On Monday, the party has resumed the discussion at around 9.30 am in the party's headquarters, and the latest developments show that the party may arrive at a final decision and end the drama. According to reports, ADMK's joint coordinator Edappadi Palaniswami will most likely be named as the Opposition Leader in the assembly with Panneerselvam's approval. Speaking to a news agency, ADMK leader Ponnaiyan has said that the party will amicably be resolving the issue at the party meeting on Monday. 

The ADMK alliance has won 75 seats in the assembly elections and ADMK alone has secured 66 seats. The reports say that of these 66 MLAs, about 61 MLAs support Edappadi Palaniswami to be the Opposition Leader, pushing Panneerselvam to give up his efforts and drama. As the fresh lockdown has come into force from 4 am on Monday, the ADMK has obtained police permission to conduct the meeting. 

The visuals from the ADMK's office show that hundreds of police personnel were deployed to tight the security and to counter any untoward incident triggered by the supporters of the former ruling party. The meeting has started at 9.30 am on Monday and by the time of writing this content, the meeting has crossed three hours but the leaders are yet to arrive at a consensus over who will be the Opposition leader, representing the ADMK in the assembly for the five years. As the first session of the current assembly will begin on Tuesday, it's imperative for ADMK to pick the Opposition Leader by Monday.