The sequestering of MLAs in a resort on the outskirts of Chennai has led to the public taking potshots at their leaders over the drama being staged over the fight for the chief minister’s chair in Tamil Nadu. In one instance, a poster has been put out of a minister, Kadambur Raju, saying he has gone missing since February 7.
AIADMK party cadres in Salem have approached the police, saying they want the authorities to look for the missing MLAs of Salem-South and West.
After the AIADMK split into two factions after the revolt of Chief Minister O Panneerselvam against the party general secretary V K Sasikala, the latter is said to have gathered the majority of MLAs and housed them in Golden Bay resort on East Coast Road, 25 km away from the heritage and tourist hotspot Mahabalipuram.
Supporters of Panneerselvam, who has only a handful of MLAs to show for support, claim that the party’s MLAs were confined in the resort against their wishes, and said the MLAs phone have not been reachable for the past two days.
Today, however, the Sasikala camp MLAs came out from their hideaway and addressed mediapersons, saying they were all staying in the hotel on their own accord. The reason given by one MLA to a TV channel on why they had all gathered at one place was that all the MLAs were set to proceed for a function elsewhere and the hotel was “just a convenient place on the way” for a stopover.
The public, however, did not seem to be buying that story. Giving credence to their scepticism, a rebel MLA on Friday declared that he had been illegally detained at the resort and had escaped.