Chennai: Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) principal secretary Durai Vaiko has withdrawn his resignation after the party’s administrative committee meeting, where his father, general secretary Vaiko, mediated the reconciliation between him and the deputy general secretary Mallai Sathya.
A day before the meeting, Durai had resigned from the position of principal secretary, saying that he could not work in the presence of a person trying to “destroy” the party.
Sources in MDMK told ThePrint that there was a rift between Durai and Sathya.
“The tension between the supporters of Sathya and Durai had been simmering for long, and it came to the fore after an internal party meeting on 12 April, where Sathya’s supporters trolled Durai and Durai’s supporters demanded Sathya’s removal,” a source said.
At the day-long administrative committee meeting headed by party chief Vaiko, all district secretaries of the party spoke in favour of Durai’s leadership, with some even raising slogans against Sathya.
“But Vaiko did not want to give up on both of them. Although Durai had been demanding the removal of Sathya, Vaiko did not want to let him go as he stood with the party and its leadership in times of crisis,” a leader, who was present at the meeting, told ThePrint.
Vaiko made Durai and Sathya patch up, and even made them sit next to each other. At the end of the meeting, Vaiko made the two shake hands, signalling the resolution of their differences and commitment to work together for their party.
“When two hearts can join, won’t the hands join?” Vaiko said, bringing their hands together.
After the meeting, Durai informed media persons about his decision to withdraw his resignation. “There were some issues within the party and we had this meeting to discuss them. Our deputy general secretary (Sathya) has apologised for some of his actions that had caused disturbance within the party. He has assured us to work together and support me. Based on the assurance, I have withdrawn my resignation and will continue as principal secretary,” he said.
At the meeting, the party passed nine resolutions, including key announcements on protests to demand withdrawal of Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 and removal of Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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