TTV Dhinakaran ‘ousts’ CM Edappadi Palaniswami from key AIADMK post

Chennai: With T.T.V. Dhinakaran threatening to destabilise the AIADMK government with his 21 loyalist MLAs, the majority camp led by chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami is meeting on Monday to fix a date for convening of general council meeting at which V.K. Sasikala is to be ousted as general secretary.

Meanwhile, Mr Dhinakaran’s surgical strike “hit” Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Sunday with the embattled AIADMK leader removing the chief minister from the post of Salem (suburban) district secretary. Though Mr Dhinakaran justified his action of “removing” people from their post, ministers and senior leaders accused him of taking such decisions only due to his “greed for power.”

His actions came as EPS camp was all set to meet party legislators, ministers and senior leaders to fix the date for the General Council meet to remove Sasikala from the General Secretary post. Removing Sasikala from the post was one of the pre-conditions imposed by Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam for the merger of the two rival factions.

“The meeting is likely to decide the date for the General Council. The General Council meeting will pass a resolution on her (Sasikala’s) ouster from the post,” a senior leader said.

Mr Dhinakaran has been sacking several party functionaries, especially district secretaries, a key post in the Dravidian parties’ hierarchy, and replacing them with his supporters ever since the merger of AIADMK factions led by Mr Palaniswami and former chief minister O. Panneerselvam on August 21.

After the merger, it has been announced that steps would be taken to expel jailed party general secretary and Mr Dhinakaran’s aunt Sasikala from the party.

The ruling establishment leaders have also been maintaining that Mr Dhinakaran has no powers to carry out the changes and questioned his re-induction into the party by Sasikala.

With his latest action, Mr Dhinakaran seeks to convey that he is determined to take on even the chief minister for their opposition to Sasikala.

He had on Saturday relieved government chief whip S. Rajendran from the post of Ariyalur District Secretary days after he wrote to Assembly Speaker P. Dhanapal seeking action against 19 MLAs loyal to him.