Dhinakaran vows to end ‘rule of betrayal’

chennai — Sidelined AIADMK leader TT V Dhinakaran on Friday launched a fresh attack on his rival, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and vowed to “end this rule of betrayal” within a week.

The ‘sacked’ party deputy chief also ruled out his faction having any direct or indirect pact with M K Stalin-led DMK, saying that party “is our primary rival.”

Speaking to reporters here, the combative leader also alleged that Palaniswami had tried to “adopt short-cut” method of facing a floor test of his government on Monday by disqualifying 18 MLAs supporting him.

“The short-cut adopted by Palaniswami is he tried to have the floor test by Monday (apparently September 18) after disqualification (of his supporting MLAs),” he alleged.

By doing so, Palaniswami may not require to garner the required support of 117 MLAs to win the trust vote, he said.

In the 234-member state Assembly, AIADMK has 134 MLAs including the Speaker. The RK Nagar seat is vacant following the death of then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa last year. The Madras High Court had on Thursday directed that no floor test be held in the state Assembly till September 20.

Following the revolt of 19 party MLAs against Palaniswami, they were all initially put up at a resort in Puducherry. They later shifted to a resort in Coorg in Karnataka and are since staying there.

One of them shifted camps to support Palaniswami later.

Dhinakaran also slammed Palaniswami for ‘aligning’ with former rebel leader O Panneerselvam, now deputy chief minister.