CHENNAI: In two weeks, the general council-cum-executive committee of the ruling AIADMK will convene in Chennai for that all important meeting where they would decide the fate of interim general secretary VK Sasikala — and thus that of ousted deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran — resolved the ruling faction at a meeting here on Monday.
Facing insurgency from within and rising demands to prove majority, leaders of the unified AIADMK are hoping that the Election Commission of India would give its ruling on the validity of Sasikala’s appointment as the general secretary of the party before the council meets on September 12.
Meanwhile, a five member team comprising senior ministers P Thangamani, D Jayakumar and CVe Shanmugam, V Maitreyan MP and Manoj Pandian left for Delhi to formally inform the commission about the merger of Amma and Puratchi Thalaivi Amma factions. They are likely to file an affidavit to this effect and seek defreezing of the Two Leaves symbol.
The meeting attended by headquarters office-bearers, ministers, spokespersons, district secretaries, MPs and MLAs, chaired by presidium chairman E Madhusudanan, declared all reshuffles effected by ousted deputy general secretary Dhinakaran invalid. The commission is yet to approve Sasikala’s appointment as the interim general secretary and hence the deputy general secretary she appointed has no powers to either appoint or remove any office-bearer in the party, stated one of the resolutions.
It reiterated that all office-bearers originally appointed by the late general secretary J Jayalalithaa and those elected through organisational polls would continue in their respective posts. Another key resolution termed Jaya TV and Namadhu MGR daily as party assets, vowing to take all legal steps to capture these two mouthpieces that were established with Jaya’s efforts and the contribution of lakhs of cadre. The channel and newspaper are owned and controlled by Sasikala’s family, and the factionalism has had an effect on its attitude towards the other factions and the government.
35 MLAs give it a miss
In what could be a setback to EPS, at least 35 of the 113 MLAs belonging to his faction did not attend the meeting. “It was not a legislative party meeting. All ministers, district secretaries and MLAs who hold other positions attended the meeting,” a minister said.