TTV Dinakaran, the de facto chief of the ruling AIADMK, who was arrested late Tuesday night in New Delhi in connection with the attempt to bribe Election Commission of India officials, was brought to Chennai by the Delhi Police on Thursday to collect details about illegal channels used for transferring the bribe money from Chennai to Delhi.
With the ignominy of their leader being brought to Chennai like an ordinary criminal, the Amma faction has begun the process of ousting Dinakaran and Sasikala from the primary membership of the party. Neither Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswamy nor his Cabinet colleagues have reacted to the arrest of Dinakaran.
Dinakaran, who had been appointed deputy general secretary of the Amma faction of the AIADMK by his aunt VK Sasikala, the jailed general secretary of the party, to run the Government and party in her absence, was accompanied by a posse of Delhi Police officials who took him straight to the CBI office in Besant Nagar from the airport in a taxi. After grilling him for almost one hour, the team took him to his residence in Adyar. Dinakaran’s friend Mallikarjunan, who too was held in Delhi has also been brought to Chennai.
Except for various media teams, no known faces from the ruling AIADMK were at the airport to receive Dinakaran. This was in stark contrast to the picture which one saw last Friday when he was seen off at the airport by hundreds of party leaders and activists when he left for Delhi.
The people of Tamil Nadu saw the live pictures of Dinakaran, who used to move around in Chennai only in high end SUVs and was tipped to take over as Chief Minister of the State after the RK Nagar by-poll (which has been rescinded since then) being brought to the State capital in police custody. Before leaving for Delhi, Dinakaran had told reporters that he does not know anybody by the name Sukesh Chandrasekhar.
The Delhi Police version is that, Dinakaran had allegedly transferred the money of Rs50 crore through hawala agents to Sukesh Chandrasekhar to bribe the EC officials for getting the ‘Two leaves’ symbol for his faction of the AIADMK. The arrest of Chandrasekhar has opened a pandora’s box and claimed Dinakaran, hitherto the most powerful politician in Tamil Nadu.
Most political parties including the DMK, the Congress and the lefts blamed the BJP for the arrest of Dinakaran and conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar in connection with the attempt to bribe official of the ECI. The Congress chief of Tamil Nadu, S Thirunavakkarassar, himself a former BJP and AIADMK leader, blamed the BJP for arresting Dinakaran and alleged that the Hindu party was trying to enter Tamil Nadu by manipulating the AIADMK leaders.
leaders of the CPI(M) and the CPI, G Ramakrishnan and R Mutharasan respectively , lambasted the BJP for arresting Dinakaran. The VCK, a Dalit extremist outfit, came down heavily on the BJP as the party was hopeful of forging an alliance with the AIADMK in the event of the DMK denying it the number of seats it demand for the 2019 lok Sabha election.
If the BJP enters into an alliance with the AIADMK, the bargaining power of the lefts and the VCK with the DMK would take a heavy toll, according to political observers in the State. The CPI(M), the CPI and the VCK drew a blank in the 2014 lok Sabha election and the 2016 Assembly elections.