With Sasikala, Dinakaran thrown out of AIADMK, EPS, OPS factions to kick off merger talks today

Chennai: AIADMK factions led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and his predecessor O Panneerselvam are expected to begin formal talks for reunion on Monday.

Today's talks comes three days after they formed their respective committees to hold discussions.

Rajya Sabha MP R Vaithilingam will head the panel set up by the Palaniswami group, while the Panneerselvam camp has named senior leader and former minister KP Munusamy as the head of a seven-member committee. 

Former ministers C Ponnaiyan, R Viswanathan and K Pandiarajan, Rajya Sabha MP V Maithreyan, former MP TH Manoj Pandian and former MLA JCD Prabhakar were the other members.

Informal talks between the two camps appeared to have hit a roadblock last week with the Panneerselvam camp seeking formal expulsion of VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran from the party.

It had also sought a CBI probe into the circumstances leading to former chief minister Jayalalithaa's death on December 5 last year.

Hardening its stance, the OPS camp had also demanded that 30 members of the Sasikala family be formally expelled from the party.

Following the Cabinet's revolt against him early this week, Dinakaran had said he was "stepping aside" in the interest of the party. 

He was questioned by the Delhi Police in the national capital on Saturday and Sunday in connection with an alleged attempt to bribe an Election Commission official to swing the fight over the ‘election symbol’ in his favour.

He will be questioned again on Monday evening.

He has maintained that he can be removed as the party’s deputy general secretary only by Sasikala.

The latter is at present serving a four-year jail term in Bengaluru in a disproportionate assets case.

(With PTI inputs)