AIADMK party meeting plans to sack Sasikala, claims Dinakaran is already expelled

A day after TTV Dinakaran sacked several ministers including Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami as the party's Salem district secretary, the AIADMK (Amma) Monday passed resolutions calling off all appointments made by him.

Four resolutions were passed at a meeting held by Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai where the party declared Dinakaran's appointments as "null and void".

The meeting said that Dinakaran was sacked from the post of deputy general secretary on August 10 itself, therefore any changes made by him in the party posts were invalid.

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One of the resolutions adopted by the party meeting said Dhinakaran had "no authority or qualification" to remove the appointees of late AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa.

He was appointed as deputy general secretary by Sasikala before her imprisonment to the Bengaluru jail. The resolution said he was not authorised by relevant party bye-laws. Also the Election Commission had refused to accept his appointment.

"With the Election Commission so far not recognising V K Sasikala's appointment as general secretary, which was done as an interim measure, the appointment of Dhinakaran as deputy general secretary by her and his getting involved in party affairs is against party laws," it said.

The resolution said that they had very clearly stated all this to Dhinakaran.

Dhinakaran was already made familiar to all this by "functionaries appointed by 'Amma' (Jayalalithaa),".

Dhinakaran and his followers have dismissed Palaniswami's meeting and the resolution passed at the AIADMK headquarters, claiming that only the party's general secretary has the authority to hold a meeting and they were not invited to the party meeting.

Dhinakaran, nephew of Sasikala, along with the support of 21 MLAs is demanding the removal of Palaniswami as CM. Since the merger, he has also been trying to prove his authority over the party by bringing in his supporters and removing the already existing ones.

Questioning the legality of the appointments made by Sasikala before going to jail the meeting has also adopted a resolution to call a general council meeting for the expulsion of jailed party chief.

Sasikala's appointed as the interim general secretary of the party on 29 December after the demise of former chief minister and party supremo J Jayalalithaa, was already approaching an end since the merger of the two factions.

On August 20 when the two factions of the AIADMK, led by Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam came together, MP R Vaithilingam had already indicated on the removal of Sasikala from the party post. This was one of the demands raised by Panneerselvam and his faction.

Besides this, the meeting has also decided to bring back the party backed media 'Namathu Dr MGR'and 'Jaya TV'.

Jaya TV and the daily were launched following efforts of Jayalalithaa and the contribution of lakhs of party workers and therefore they are our party's assets," it said.

One of the resolutions also said it has been resolved to strive hard to "protect " the party and its government.

Some of the party MLAs and MPs were not present at the meeting.