While DMK's MK Stalin has on Friday morning sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on one hand, the state has witnessed the emergence of a fresh tussle in the ADMK party on Friday evening on the other hand as the former ruling party has been going through a fight and race on who would win the post of Tamil Nadu's Opposition leader.

The fresh tussle in the ADMK party was majorly triggered by the unprecedented debacle in the recently-held assembly election where the Tamil Nadu voters had gifted the ADMK leaders a tragic loss with several ADMK ministers conceding the defeat to their opponents. While the DMK alliance had secured 159 seats, the ADMK alliance had ended up securing 75 seats, about a 50% of the decline in seats compared to the 2016 polls. 

Though settling down for a major fiasco which was made possible by the flawed administration and the anti-incumbency wave against Edappadi Palaniswami, the ADMK had managed to become the opposition party in the 16th legislative assembly. Becoming the opposition party was one of the root causes for the latest tussle in the ADMK as both the top leaders - Edappadi Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam had engaged in a fresh race on who will become the Opposition leader in the state assembly.

According to reports, despite the loss, both the leaders aren't ready to sacrifice and reach a consensus over holding the post and the race has now emerged to be like last year's intra-party furore over who would become the Chief Ministerial candidate of the ADMK in the 2021 polls. After the episodes of tussle which implied the strong lack of leadership in the party after the demise of Jayalalithaa, Edappadi Palaniswami had finally won the race and became the Chief Ministerial candidate.

However, as the party failed to retain the reign, the tussle had begun in the party between the supporters of the top two leaders over who will lead the party in the assembly. The sources say that Edappadi Palaniswami is not willing to give up the post of the Opposition leader and he is citing his victory in a huge margin in the polls to power up his claim to become the Opposition leader. However, Panneerselvam has been vowing to take over the post by claiming that he had fought a tough race in the elections.

Edappadi Palaniswami has contested in the Edappadi Constituency in the polls and he took on DMK's newbie Sampath Kumar while O Panneerselvam had taken on his strong foe DMK's Thanga Tamilselvan. Palaniswami had won and retained the Edappadi Constituency comfortably by defeating DMK's Sampath Kumar by the margin of over 60,000 votes, but this was not the case of Panneerselvam. 

The race between Panneerselvam and DMK's Thanga Tamilselvan in Bodinayakkanur in Theni was too close and kept nail-biting moments alive. While it was predicted that Panneerselvam would stumble due to the anti-incumbency wave, he had eventually won the Bodinayakkanur constituency in a razor-thin margin. Along with both the leaders, around a dozen ministers had won the race while another dozen of ministers had faced a debacle. 

On Friday, DMK President MK Stalin has sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and formed a new government with 33 cabinet ministers. As Stalin has formed the government, it has become imperative for ADMK to elect the Opposition leader in the assembly. The ADMK has convened the meeting with the newly-elected MLAs and senior leaders at the party's headquarters in Chennai in the evening hours of Friday and 65 newly elected ADMK MLAs had arrived for the meeting. 

It was reported that the ADMK leadership will decide who will lead the party as the Opposition leader and who will be the party's whip in the assembly. As the party prepared for the meeting, hundreds of ADMK members from across the state had thronged before the party's office and Edappadi Palaniswami has made his first public appearance through the meet since the election defeat.

He was welcomed by the party members and hours after the meeting, the supporters of Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, who had gathered outside the party's office, had begun engaging in an argument and war of words by demanding the party's leadership to reject the dual leadership and they urged that the party must be led by single leadership. The tussle between the supporters had shocked both the leaders. 

Following the unpleasant atmosphere over the latest tussle, the party leaders including Edappadi Palaniswami, Panneerselvam, Thangamani, Jayakumar, and SP Velumani had held a closed-door discussion over electing the Opposition Leader. The sources say Panneerselvam demands the post by citing that Palaniswami's leadership has already failed in the assembly polls. However, Palaniswami claims that he had retained the party's base in the Kongu belt and demands that he has to lead the party in the assembly. 

When tensions escalate between the two leaders in ADMK, BJP mulls to come to the picture of electing the Opposition Leader under the guise of being in the ADMK alliance. The sources say it may take more days for ADMK to reach a consensus in finalizing the Opposition leader. These back-to-back furores and tussles have apparently been displaying the fact that the current leaders in the ADMK are not willing to fix the flawed leadership. The latest tussle puts out a sign that the party is driving towards another drama of political divide.