TIRUCHY: AIADMK functionary and Thirunedungulam village panchayat president Srinidhi Sathishkumar was expelled from the party allegedly for organising a grama sabha meeting in which School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi participated on Sunday.
The village falls under the party's Tiruchy Rural (South) unit, and former MP P Kumar is the district secretary. According to sources, the block development officer informed the Thirunedungulam village panchayat president about the minister's plan to take part in the gram sabha. Following that, Srinidhi Sathishkumar made all arrangements for the meeting.
While speaking at the meeting, Poyyamozhi said, "I was planning to attend a gram sabha in another village. Before starting to Tiruchy, Chief Minister MK Stalin asked me about the village where I am going to participate. When I told the other village's name, he told me to attend the gram sabha at Thirunedungulam where Narikuravar families live in large numbers."
Sources said Devarayaneri area under Thirunedungulam has a narikuravar population close to 1,000.
Poyyamozhi also gave Srinidhi a letter written by the Chief Minister to village panchayat presidents. Pictures of the event went viral on social media platforms.
On Monday, when Srinidhi went to file nominations for the AIADMK internal party elections for the general council member post, she was allegedly stopped from doing so by some functionaries. She was informed that she has been expelled from the party, citing some other reason.
"They told me I was expelled on April 13 itself. But, I was informed about this only today. Some party functionaries openly asked me how could I be in two parties at a time. Though I tried to explain that it was a government function, they were not listening. As a village panchayat president, it was my duty to organise gram sabha. I was told the minister would participate only two days befor the event. It was a government function and I organised the event in official capacity. It was not a private function or party event," Srinidhi said.