The prospects of the merger of the two warring groups of the AIADMK brightened by Wednesday with TTV Dinakaran, the beleaguered deputy general secretary of the Sasikala faction giving enough hints that he would move out of the party leadership.
In a tweet on Wednesday, he thanked the AIADMK leaders and cadre for the cooperation extended to him and sought that unity be maintained in the party. Though he has not announced his resignation, the tweet read like a farewell message.
With the Delhi Police issuing a lookout notice for him on Wednesday in connection with the revelations made by conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar who was arrested in the national capital with an amount of Rs 1.3 crore of unaccounted money, the continuation of Dinakaran as deputy general secretary of the AIADMK has become untenable.
“I am ready to move out of the leadership of the party with my family members. The decision made by the Ministers and MlAs last night that we should step out of the party could have been made out of fear. There should not be any fear in the minds of the party leaders or workers. Somebody is creating fear in their minds,” Dinakaran told reporters in Chennai on Wednesday.
Though Dinakaran had convened a meeting of the party MlAs in the morning, it was cancelled because he had to be present in the Additional Chief Metropolitan Court in connection with two FERA violation cases against him. Except for two MlAs of the AIADMK, no other senior leaders has come out in support of Dinakaran during the last two days.
Interestingly, all Ministers who had ridiculed O Pannee-
rselvam has started singing a different tune by Wednesday. RB Udayakumar, the Minister who first went public demanding the resignation of Panneerselvam from the post of Chief Minister immediately after the coronation of Sasikala as general secretary in December 2016 said on Wednesday that it was all because of some kind of misunderstanding.
But the Panneerselvam faction has hardened its stance in spite of the announcement by Finance Minister D Jayakumar that Sasikala, Dinakaran and other members of the Mannargudi clan would not have any role in running the AIADMK.
“This is a first round victory for us in our Dharma Yudha to regain and bring back the rule of Amma in Tamil Nadu. Our demand for a probe into the hospitalisation and demise of Jayalalithaa has to be met by the Government," Panneerselvam told reporters at his residence in Chennai.
The only question which remains unanswered is whether Edappadi Palaniswamy would move out and Panneerselvam be made the Chief Minister. With enough hints of the jailed VK Sasikala and her Mannar-
gudi clan are on their way out, the merger is a matter of time.
Dr V Mythreyan, a close confidante of Panneerselvam told The Pioneer that it was too early to come to a conclusion based on the happenings during the last two days. “let them (Sasikala faction) come out with official statements on the demands which we have made. The properties in the name of Jayalalithaa too should be transferred to the party,” said Mythreyan.
Jayakumar, the Finance Minister, had said late Tuesday night that a committee of senior Ministers has been constituted to run the party affairs till a new general secretary is elected by the cadre. “We, which include the Chief Minister, Ministers, MlAs, MPs, district secretaries, head quarters office bearers, grass root level office bearers, have come together and took a unanimous decision to keep Dinakaran and family away from the party affairs. This is the wish of the 1.5 crore party cadre. We have decided to keep the Sasikala family away from party affairs,” Jayakumar had told after the meeting.