AIADMK power tussle continues, 27 more party MLAs skip Palaniswamy-Panneerselvam meet

Chennai: The faction led by Chief Minister Palaniswami had held a meet to put on notice AIADMK chief VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinakaran on Monday, but was left in a complete shock after as many as 21 loyal party lawmakers appeared as absentees. 

The absence of MLAs from the meet was a setback to the newly-combined faction besides the other 21 rebel MLAs, who continued to stay at a Puducherry resort. 

Asked about this and party sources told PTI that some of the MPs were members of parliamentary standing committees and hence could be in other states as part of their work. They, however, claimed most of the MLAs were present at the meet.

Though it was not clear how many MLAs and MPs attended the meeting, a TOI report claimed that the abstention of 21 MLAs left the EPS-OPS side was a blow for the united faction.

After the meet, the joint faction convened the AIADMK's General Council and Executive on September 12 where the party is likely to take a decision on removal of Sasikala as AIADMK general secretary and Dhinakaran as the deputy general secretary.

The meeting will be presided over by party presidium chairman E Madhusudhanan, the release said.

The expulsion of Sasikala had been the main demand of the OPS camp prior to the formal merger of the two factions on August 21.

A senior leader of the party told IANS earlier that the general council will be called mainly to nullify the appointment of Sasikala, who is currently serving her jail-term at the central jail in Karnataka. According to him, the general council has around 1,300-1,400 members and nearly 85 per cent of them are in support of the ruling faction.

The meeting was attended by Palaniswami, Panneerselvam, ministers, legislators, Members of Parliament and other office bearers.

According to the statement, individual invitations to all the general council members were being sent. 

In the resolution passed on Monday, the EPS-OPS faction also termed the recent appointments made by Dhinakaran as invalid. 

"Dhinakaran had no authority or qualification to remove those appointed by late AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa from party posts and his announcements in this regard were not binding on party affairs," a resolution adopted at the meeting said.

The first of the four resolutions adopted at the meeting said Dhinakaran had been 'removed' as deputy general secretary on August 10, 2017 at the then meeting headed by Palaniswami.