In a major shock to ADMK joint coordinator Edappadi Palaniswami, a party's former MP joins DMK in the presence of DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin. Former ADMK MP Vijila Sathyanath had joined the DMK parallelly to the joining of the former leaders of Kamal's Makkal Needhi Maiam. The ceremony was held on Thursday and second-line leaders of DMK had also kept their attendance. 

Vijila Sathyanath was ADMK's Rajya Sabha MP and she was elected to the Upper house of the parliament under the leadership of the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa. Vilija had served as the state secretary of ADMK's women wing and also served as the Mayor of Tirunelveli. She was ADMK's MP in Rajya Sabha from 2014-2020 and she wasn't awarded another term by the current leadership of the party. 

She was not active in the party and amid ongoing tensions within the party, she has decided to switch over to the rival and on Thursday, she had met Chief Minister MK Stalin and officially joined the DMK. Besides Vijila Sathyanath, former leaders of Makkal Needhi Maiam R Mahendran and Padma Priya had also joined the DMK. Mahendran was the vice-president of Makkal Needhi Maiam and he quit the party after a rift with the party's president Kamal Haasan. 

Mahendran had contested in the Singanallur constituency in the recently-held Tamil Nadu assembly polls. However, he lost the race to the ADMK candidate and Padma Priya had contested in the Maduravoyal constituency and she also had quitted the party after it was caught under the swirl of intra-party furore. Along with Mahendran, 11,000 cadres from Makkal Needhi Maiam had joined the DMK. 

While addressing the newly joined functionaries, MK Stalin said, "Had Mahendran joined before the assembly election, DMK would have won with a huge majority in Coimbatore and Kongu region." He further added, "Although we were able to win the Assembly election and formed a government, I still worry about our performance in the Kongu region. As Mahendran has joined us now, we will be able to perform better in the region." 

According to reports, Mahendran had presented MK Stalin with a member booklet of 11,000 functionaries who will be joining DMK. In a press release, Mahendran said that in light of the COVID-19 protocols, an initial group of 78 members will join the DMK on Thursday. However, the details including the name, constituencies, previous political parties, and contact numbers of all 11,000 functionaries will be handed over to DMK President MK Stalin.