CHENNAI: Scores of functionaries from the DMK and T T V Dhinakaran's AMMK in Karur district Thursday joined the ruling AIADMK in the presence of its top leaders, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam.
More than 3,000 members of the DMK, AMMK, Congress, DMDK and MDMK from the district joined the AIADMK, a party release here said.
Panneerselvam is the AIADMK Coordinator, while Palaniswami is the Joint Coordinator.
Welcoming the workers into the AIADMK fold, especially those from the AMMK, the chief minister said they had come to the right place.
"Those in the AMMK are our brothers and sisters. They struggled and helped in the growth of this organisation (AIADMK, earlier). Such people were misled," he said in an apparent reference to Dhinakaran.
The AIADMK had earlier extended an invitation to AMMK workers to return to the 'parent organisation', saying they had been 'misled' by Dhinakaran when he floated the party early this year post his fallout with Palaniswami in 2017.
The AIADMK has made it clear that its doors are open to anyone from the AMMK other than Dhinakaran and deposed party leader V K Sasikala.
Training his guns on former AMMK leader V Senthil Balaji, who joined the DMK recently, Palaniswami charged him with "having no ideology.
"Recalling his association with the AIADMK since 1974, besides that of other senior leaders, Palaniswami said that hard work and gratitude has brought them to such heights.
"Hard work and gratitude will always earn respect," he added.
Panneerselvam, who hit out at Dhinakaran, said the AMMK workers, by returning to the AIADMK, were now "travelling in the right direction."
He urged the party workers to strive for AIADMK's win in the bypolls to 20 Assembly constituencies, as well as next year's Lok Sabha polls.