Edappadi K. Palaniswami

Edappadi Karuppa Palaniswami (born 12 May 1954), often referred to by his initials E.P.S., is an Indian politician who is the current leader of opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. He served as the seventh chief minister of Tamil Nadu, from 2017 to 2021. He has been the General Secretary of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) since 28 March 2023. Previously, Palaniswami has served as the interim general secretary (2022–23), joint co-ordinator (2017–22) and headquarters secretary (2016–22) of AIADMK.

Born in 1954 in Salem district in the erstwhile Madras State, Palaniswami became an agriculturalist before entering into politics in 1974. Palaniswami has represented Edappadi since 2011 as Member of the Legislative Assembly, previously also serving from 1989 to 1996. In the 1998 Indian general election he was elected as Member of Parliament of the Lok Sabha representing Tiruchengode. Post the 2011 assembly elections, he served as the minister of highways and minor ports in the Jayalalithaa cabinet. After 2016 assembly elections, he also served as the ministry of public works in the cabinet.

Early and personal life
Palaniswami was born on 12 May 1954 to Karuppa Gounder and Thavasiyammal at Siluvampalayam, Salem district, Madras State (now Tamil Nadu). After completing school, he completed B.Sc. from Sri Vasavi College. His parents were involved in agriculture and Palaniswami also chose to get involved in the same. He has two siblings, a brother Govindraj and a sister Ranjitham. He is married to Ratha and they have a son.

Early years (1974-2010)
Palaniswami entered politics in 1974 enrolling himself as a volunteer in All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). He was first elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly in 1989, representing Edappadi constituency, and won the re-election in 1991 from the same constituency. He lost from the same constituency in the 1996 assembly elections. In the 1998 general election, he was elected Member of Parliament, representing Tiruchengodu constituency in the 12th Lok Sabha. He subsequently lost the 1999 and 2004 general elections from the same constituency. He contested from Edappadi again in the 2006 assembly elections and lost. He was appointed propaganda secretary of AIADMK in July 2006 and later as organising secretary in 2007.

Cabinet minister (2011-17)
He was re-elected from Edappadi constituency in the 2011 assembly election. He was appointed as the minister of highways and minor ports in the Jayalalithaa cabinet. He served as the district secretary of AIADMK for Salem suburban district from June 2011 to April 2022. In 2014, he was appointed as the member of the disciplinary committee of AIADMK. He was again re-elected from the same constituency in the 2016 assembly election. After 2016 assembly elections, he also served as the ministry of public works in the cabinet. In 2016, he was appointed headquarters secretary of AIADMK, succeeding P. Palaniappan.

Chief minister (2017-21)
Palaniswami became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in February 2017, following the resignation of O. Panneerselvam, who was the chief minister in the interim after the demise of former chief minister J. Jayalalithaa in December 2016. He was sworn in on 16 February 2017 along with a 32-member cabinet and also held charge of home, prohibition and excise.

In March 2017, he introduced the Kudimaramaththu scheme for restoring minor irrigation tanks and lakes in the state. In May 2018, police opened fire on protests against a copper plant owned by Vedanta that was allegedly polluting groundwater in Thoothukudi, killing 13 people. While the act was later termed as "self-defence" by a one-man commission, the Government of Tamil Nadu ordered the permanent closure of the plant on 28 May 2018. In August 2019, Palaniswami introduced dedicated patrol vehicles (Amma patrol) to ascertain the security of women and children in public places.

In the 2019 Indian general election, AIADMK under the leadership of Palaniswami, contested in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and won only a single seat. In 2019, Palaniswami launched the Yaadhum Oore programme aimed at garnering foreign investment in the state. He visited United States, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates to promote the same. In February 2020, the Government of Tamil Nadu declared the Kaveri delta region as a protected special agriculture zone. In May 2020, the government passed an order for reservation of 7.5% of seats in government medical colleges to students from public schools while also announcing a plan to set up eleven new government medical colleges with 1,650 seats.

Under his governance, Tamil Nadu was rated amongst the top states based on a composite index in the context of sustainable development according to the Public Affairs Index released by the Public Affairs Center in October 2020. During the coronavirus pandemic, Tamil Nadu was one of the few states that did not register negative growth. Tamil Nadu was ranked as the best performing big state from the year 2018 to 2021 based on a study conducted by India Today.

Leader of the opposition (2021–present)
AIADMK lost the 2021 assembly elections and Palaniswami resigned as the chief-minister on 6 May 2021. He won for the third consecutive time from the Edappadi constituency and was elected as the leader of the opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

In June 2022, district secretaries and senior party members of AIADMK spoke out against the “dual leadership” system of Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam. The supporters of Palaniswami pushed for the change in the party's leadership structure to appoint him as the general secretary of AIADIMK ahead of the general council meeting on 23 June 2022, which was expected to elect the leadership of the party. In June 2022, Palaniswami wrote to Panneerselvam asserting the latter ceased to be the party coordinator as the amendments made to the party's bylaw in the 2021 December executive committee meeting were not recognised in the general council meeting held on 23 June.

On 11 July 2022, the general council of AIADMK abolished the dual leadership model, appointing Palaniswami as the interim chief and expelled Panneerselvam and his loyalists from the primary memberships of the party for "anti-party" activities. While on 17 August, the Madras High Court nullified the decisions of the AIADMK general council and ordered maintaining a status quo, a division bench later upheld the decisions and set aside the previous court order on 2 September 2022. On 23 February 2023, the Supreme Court of India upheld the later order of the Madras High Court, effectively handing the leadership of the party to Palaniswami. On 28 March 2023, AIADMK announced that Palaniswami was elected as the general secretary through party's general secretary election. On 20 April 2023, the Election Commission of India recognised Palaniswami as the general secretary, acknowledging the amendments to the party constitution and changes to list of office-bearers. On 20 August 2023, a conference was held at Madurai led by Palaniswami as a part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the founding of AIADMK. On 25 September 2023, Palaniswami led AIADMK officially left the National Democratic Alliance ahead of the 2024 Indian general election.

In the aftermath of the 2023 Chennai floods, Palaniswami demanded the chief minister of Tamil Nadu to release a white paper on the completed and ongoing stormwater drain work in Chennai and further criticised the state government for the lack of preparedness. In the 2024 general election, Palaniswami led AIADMK formed an alliance with Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, Puthiya Tamilagam, and Social Democratic Party of India and contested 36 seats in the state of Tamil Nadu and one eac in the union territories of Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The party-led alliance failed to win any seats in the elections.

Awards and honours
Palaniswami was awarded a Honorary Doctorate by Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute in 2019. He was announced as a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International in July 2020.