Chennai: AIADMK, which was pushed to the third position in the April 23 assembly elections, is split over its stand vis-à-vis Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), the new ruling party.

About 28 of the 47 MLAs led by senior leaders C V Shanmugam and S P Velumani are said to be pushing the leadership to extend support to the TVK to remain "politically relevant" in Tamil Nadu.

The MLAs, who were lodged in a luxurious resort in the neighbouring Puducherry for the past three days, returned to Chennai and attended a meeting chaired by party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami. Of the 47 MLAs, about five were absent from the meeting, sources said.

After the meeting, Palaniswami extended his congratulations "to the party that will be forming the government in Tamil Nadu," a statement which gave enough indications that the party was abandoning efforts to form a government with outside support from DMK. On Friday, senior AIADMK leader M Thambidurai had said that the people's wish was to see EPS becoming Chief Minister again.

However, hours after the meeting, about 28 MLAs went into a huddle with Shanmugam and Velumani, a close confidante of EPS ever since he became Chief Minister in 2017, to discuss their next course of action.

The meeting was significant as these MLAs have been asking EPS to extend AIADMK's support to TVK. However, EPS has been stonewalling the proposal, saying TVK leader C Joseph Vijay should reach out to him directly for the support and that he won't even consider such a proposal until then.

"These MLAs don't want the party to lose its relevance. They don't want to site behind the DMK MLAs in the Assembly. They say we should be part of the TVK government or at least support the government from outside to be relevant," a source told DH.