Sasikala’s return to TN ruffles feathers

The return of expelled All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary VK Sasikala, who was released from a Bengaluru prison last month after serving a four-year jail sentence in a disproportionate assets case, to Chennai on Tuesday appears to have infused a sense of unease in Tamil Nadu’s ruling party. Party leaders have insisted on retaining a dual leadership (of chief minister E Palaniswami and his deputy O Paneerselvam), but there is a section, comprising the state’s southern block and the Thevar community that Sasikala belongs to, which believes the AIADMK would lose out on those votes if she is kept out. Another narrative building in the AIADMK is that public sentiment is against Sasikala. “We had celebrated you as Chinamma after Amma (J Jayalalithaa), but the people didn’t accept you,” AIADMK spokesperson Vaigaichelvan said at a rally on Tuesday.

CHANDIGARH: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday urged Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore to direct the Punjab government to countermand the election at all places where nomination papers of opposition candidates were rejected and sought deployment of paramilitary forces for fair elections in the February 14 local bodies polls .

An SAD delegation, including senior leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Daljit Singh Cheema and Surjit Singh Rakhra called on the governor on Tuesday and apprised him of the alleged collapse of law and order machinery in the state and requested him to intervene to restore the rule of law.

The delegation informed the governor about the recent murderous attack on the SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and that the state government was yet to proceed in the matter as per the complaint. HTC