Chennai, Fissures in the opposition AIADMK deepened on Tuesday with a group of MLAs led by senior leaders SP Velumani and C Ve Shanmugam alleging that party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami wanted to join hands with archrival DMK to keep TVK away from the ruling saddle.
They extended their support to the C Joseph Vijay-led dispensation, which will face a floor test on Wednesday.
About 30 MLAs, including the two senior leaders are believed to be in the camp that has been opposed to Palaniswami's leadership following the party's debacle in the April 23 polls, where it won from 47 out of the 164 seats it contested.
The party hit out at the rival camp MLAs over their criticism of Palaniswami and described as 'rumours,' claims that he wanted to join hands with the DMK.
The rumblings in the MGR-founded AIADMK have led to speculations of the party heading for a split, similar to those in the wake of the former's death in 1987 as well post the demise of Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in December 2016.
On Tuesday, the Velumani-Shanmugam led camp said that they have decided to support the TVK government led by Chief Minister Vijay.
Speaking to reporters, Shanmugam said they would be meeting Vijay this afternoon to provide a letter supporting his government.
He also alleged that party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami wanted to form a government with the support of DMK.
The AIADMK senior leaders have urged Palaniswami to convene a party's general council meeting to thoroughly deliberate on the reasons for the electoral debacle and to strengthen the party in the future.
