Merger bid falls flat as 3 MLAs refuse post in Sasikala faction
Just when it appeared that merger of the two AIADMK factions was about to happen at the prodding of the Bharatiya Janata Party, jailed AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala’s ability to turn things around in AIADMK seems to have taken a major hit. Three MLAs appointed to party posts on Friday refused to accept the offer on Saturday.
Sasikala’s nephew Dinakaran appointed 60 office-bearers, including 20 MLAs, late on Friday. He said that this list was cleared by Sasikala herself when he called on the jailed leader the day before.
Out of the 20 MLAs, three have declined to accept the party post, preferring to stay with the ruling Edapaddi Palanisami camp. Declining the post, K Palani, MLA from Sriperumbudur, said he was happy with the post given by Jayalalithaa and did not want any other post.
A senior minister derisively dismissed Dinakaran as a spent force and claimed that he had but a handful of MLAs with him.
The BJP has been trying hard to enter Tamil Nadu and take advantage of the vacuum created by the demise of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The route it chose was to get the AIADMK on board, if possible to join NDA, but it wanted the merger of the two factions as a pre-condition.
But, far from achieving merger, the number of factions in AIADMK has now risen to three — with Dinakaran stepping up the ante against chief minister E Palanisami and his predecessor O Panneerselvam.