After their loss at the RK Nagar bye-election on Sunday, the AIADMK was forced to review its strategy on Monday. In a review meeting of the top brass including Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, the AIADMK leaders decided to expel party members who openly continued to support Sasikala’s nephew and sidelined Deputy General Secretary of the party TTV Dhinakaran. To this end, eight AIADMK office bearers were relieved of their primary membership as well as all connections held to the party.
Notices were issued to the press announcing the expulsion of the following known TTV supporters and district secretaries: P Vetrivel (Chennai North) who released the video of Jayalalithaa in hospital a day before RK Nagar constituents went to the polls, NG Parthiban (Vellore East), M Rangaswami (Thanjavur North) and Thanga Thamilchelvan (Theni).
In a second notice, EPS and OPS have also expelled VP Kalairajan, District Secretary South Chennai (North) unit, 'Popular' Muthiah, Tirunelveli City District Secretary, Va Pugazhendhi, Karnataka State Secretary, and CR Saraswathi, Women’s Wing Deputy Secretary and Press Relations Committee Member.
They have been expelled for “acting against the principles and aims of the party, for attempting to taint the integrity of the party and for breaching the code of conduct of the party.”
Of these party office bearers, four are MLAs who were disqualified by Assembly Speaker P Dhanapal in April. The MLAs are P Vetrivel of Perambur, NG Parthiban of Sholingar, M Rengasamy of Thanjavur and Thanga Tamilselvan of Andipatti.
Reacting to the expulsion, Va Pugazhendhi told one TV channel, “Expelling us from the AIADMK is the same as expelling Jayalalithaa.”
Thanga Tamilselvan who was seen at the side of TTV Dhinakaran throughout the campaign for RK Nagar said, “This is a childish move. Even the people won’t accept this. Even the party cadre won’t accept this. Since the case (of Sasikala and TTV’s expulsion from the party and post of General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary) is in court, no one has the authority to expel us.”
“This is disrespecting the court. We were nominated by Jayalalithaa. This action has been taken because many others will come over to our side after the RK Nagar victory,” he added. He also said that where will be a huge change under Dhinakaran’s leadership.
Reacting to allegations of collusion with the DMK, he said, “If it were true that we had colluded with the DMK, they (DMK) should have won. But they have lost their deposit.” He also said that after the loss at RK Nagar, the meeting “should have decided to either dissolve the government or unite under the leadership of TTV Dhinakaran.”