-Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
As Tamil Nadu governor Rao refused to ask the CM Palanisamy to test his majority on the floor of the house as demanded by DMK and Sasikala-Dinakaran and family, Dinakaran is annoyed. “Chinnanna,” nephew of Chinnamma Sasikala, jailed for rampant corrupt operations, looting the resources belonging to Tamil people.
The ruling AIADMK has 134 MLAs in the 234-member state Assembly with one vacancy caused by the death of CM and party supremo J Jayalalithaa from RK Nagar. The splits in the party, latest by the Dinakaran group, have created a sort of instability and instability of the government in the state.
Currently, 19 AIADMK MLAs have sided with the Dhinakaran game plan and are camping at the neighboring union territory of Puducherry after meeting Tamil Nadu Governor Vidyasagar Rao, and expressing lack of confidence in the chief minister.
As 19 MLAs of AIADMK loyal to sidelined party deputy-chief TTV Dhinakaran continued their rebellion within the party, Tamil Nadu chief minister E Palaniswamy called a meeting which decided to convene the party’s general council. A decision to remove jailed party general-secretary VK Sasikala from the post is likely to be taken at the general council meeting. The general council and executive meeting of AIADMK will be convened on 12 September.
Dinakaran, still hoping to take over power in Madras Fort to mint crores of money and illegal wealth, trying to oust the CM Palanisamy to quickly assume power at eh Fort and help aunt and chinnamma Sasikala in the jail who seeks all privileges that were extended to former CM Jayalalithaa. Dinakaran, however, does not want DMK to use the confusion in the ruling party, created by him and his “Akka” (sister).
On 20 August, when the two factions of the AIADMK, led respectively by Palaniswamy and current Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam merged, party leader R Vaithilingam said steps would be taken to sack Sasikala from the party, a demand raised by the Panneerselvam faction for the unification.
Not recognizing both Sasikala and Dinakaran and their extended family, the Palaniswamy camp has rejected these decisions, saying Dhinakaran had been removed as deputy general-secretary on 10 August, and hence sackings and appointments ordered by him were not valid.
Reportedly she goes out of jail in Bangalore presumably for shopping and site seeing, and Karnataka government is unable to take punitive measures against the prison authorities and Sasikala.
Whether or not she is responsible for the early death of her “Akka” CM Jayalalithaa under suspicious circumstances, she has planning to execute her dream of taking both the strong ruling party and government very tactfully, but the serious corruption charges and jail life presented by the Apex Court denied her that opportunity.
Having lost hopes of being made the CM of the state, Dinakaran has split the ruling party by weeding away some 18 MLAs he thought the TN governor would either call for a floor test or dismiss the government, Dinakaran, and DMK and some more parties have met the President in New Delhi to ask the CM Palanisamy to prove his majority.
Dinakaran who is now out of jail and Sasikala who is in prison are deeply upset that their conspiracy has not worked in their favor and O. Panneerselvam is back in power and their temporary nominee Palanisamy has taken a position that is against the interests of secret plans of Sasikala -Dinakaran, and family. Now a new brother of Sasikala is seen on the TV channels seeking power for Dinakaran to promote the joint family interests.
Leaders of four opposition parties met the governor to press for convening a meeting of the state assembly, but he said the party had not lost its majority as any of the 19 MLAs have resigned from the ruling party nor were removed by the party. As such, the ruling party still has the majority, and that could even be proved in the assembly.
Following Governor Rao’s rejection of the pleas of DMK and Dinakaran to get the floor test in the assembly, the rebel MLAs have lost the steam, but they continue to enjoy life at a posh Pondicherry resort. The TN Minister Jayakumar who successfully mediated between the OPS and EPS faction for reunification has cautioned them that they are on the wrong path behind Dinkaran and if they stop following the Sasikala-Dinakaran’s conspiratorial footsteps to pull down the government, they would be taken back to the party.
Governor Rao explained that he cannot accept the argument that Palanisamy government has lot majority since the 18 rebel MLAs are still in the party, they have not left the party, nor joined any other party nor launched a new party. Further, if they take a democratic decision, then CM Palanisamy has got the support of about 115 MLAs, and just 18 MLAs cannot decide the fate of government that has the majority of party MLAs with it.
Moreover, Dinkaran keeps saying that he has no plan to pull down the elected Amma government. This means the government would not fall after the floor test and Dinakaran is only playing dirty tricks.
CM Palanisamy convened the meeting of MLAs and MPs at the party HQ. Convened by Palaniswamy and attended by senior party functionaries and ministers, Monday’s meeting also discussed Dinakaran’s recent shuffling of the party ranks, the sources said. Monday’s meeting, which some of the party MLAs and MPs did not attend, also discussed the validity of the appointments made by Sasikala before going to jail in the Rs 66.6 crore disproportionate assets case. Steps would be taken to consider removing Sasikala as the chief of the party at the meeting of the general council, the apex body of the AIADMK, sources added.
Unfazed by the attack on the chief minister’s camp, Dhinakaran continued to reshuffle party ranks. As part of his efforts to punish those who are not behind him, Dhinakaran had removed Palaniswamy as the party’s Salem district secretary on Sunday, besides sacking many other ministers from party posts. Among others, Dhinakaran sacked cabinet ministers P Thangamani and SP Velumani as district secretaries of Namakkal and Coimbatore, respectively. He also removed their colleague M Natarajan as the district secretary of Tiruchirappalli City unit.
Interestingly, these days as a self-appointed dictator Dinakaran, on the strength of Sasikala’s appointment of him as her deputy in the party, keeps removing party functionaries with his supporters However election commission has not recognized her appointment as AIADMK’s GS, and hence his claim being the deputy GS of Sasikala is invalid too.
As purge continued, Dhinakaran sacked a member of Parliament Tiruchirappally secretary T Rathinavel too. Thangamani and Velumani, besides former ministers V Murthy, TKM Chinnaiah, BV Ramana and Mukkur N Subramanian were also removed by Dhinakaran as AIADMK organization secretaries. Apart from announcing the reshuffling of other party units, Dhinakaran has removed MPs KR Arjunan and SR Vijayakumar as secretaries of Nilgiris and students’ wing secretaries.
All the changes were being made by chinnanna with the approval of party Chief chinnamma VK Sasikala, Dhinakaran said in a statement. Sasikala was appointed the interim general-secretary of the party by the general council at a meeting held on 29 December 2016, days after the demise of the late chief minister and party supremo J Jayalalithaa.
AIADMK would ask the Election Commission to declare the interim poll of the AIADMK null and void as it was a conspiracy by the Sasikala family. The erstwhile Panneerselvam faction had earlier approached the Election Commission against Sasikala’s appointment as party chief last year. Meanwhile, sources in the unified AIADMK said a team of ministers might approach the Election Commission to withdraw the affidavits filed in favor of Sasikala by the Palaniswamy camp before the merger. They might leave for Delhi soon, accompanied by aides of Pannnerselvam, they added.
Apparently, CM Palanisamy has the support of the majority of the party MLAs, and as such she still enjoys a majority. Jayalalithaa did not trust both Sasikala and Dinakaran as their extended family began controlling the government. In fact, Jaya has expelled the Dinkaran, and she refused to him an audience till her last breath. Dinakaran merged all of sudden when Sasikala was taken to jail.
Any change in the government at this juncture may not be in their interests of the state and people. Continued uncertainty will only help the corrupt forces waiting in the wings to make wealth illegally.