Deepa Jayakumar's husband K Madhavan quits her party, launches new outfit

Chennai: In a major setback to late former Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa`s niece Deepa Jayakumar, who launched a new party named `MGR Amma Deepa Peravai` on the eve of her aunt`s 69th birth anniversary, the latter`s husband K. Madhavan has announced he would quit the political outfit and start his own party.

Madhavan, who had been involved in the formation of the pary, said it could not function independently due to some "evil forces", which had taken over the outfit and hence, he decided to launch a party and work on his own. He, however, said he had no differences with Deepa.Madhavan made this announcement after paying homage at Jayalalithaa`s memorial. He is expected to announce the name of his party soon.

Earlier, Deepa and Madhavan launched `MGR Amma Deepa Peravai` on February 24 with much fanfare while expressing displeasure over the newly-appointed Chief Minister E. Palanisamy.

"Palanisamy is not the right person people wanted as a Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. This kind of hijacking of the party is not good. There is a traitor group working behind the government and we will work continuously to throw away this group," Deepa had said.