‘AIADMK using MGR’s name, not policies’

“It is not what it was when founded”, said MCR Praveen on Monday. He, along with his father MC Rajendran and aunt Leelavathy joined the BJP on February 24. Leelavathy is the daughter of MGR’s brother MG Chakrapani and she had donated her kidney to MGR when he was ailing in 1984.Rajendran is Chakrapani’s son. 

“Today’s AIADMK is not what my grandfather (MGR) founded. He was very particular that it was being founded against corruption and family politics. Today, family politics is happening in AIADMK,” Praveen said in an apparent reference to VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran holding top two posts of general secretary and the deputy, respectively. “It was not easy (to walk out) of AIADMK,” he added. 

Praveen said in today’s AIADMK, only “the name and fame” of MG Ramachandran was being used “but not his policies, especially those regarding public service,” he said. Praveen, Rajendran and Leelavathy had joined the BJP in Modi’s presence in Coimbatore on February 24. Leelavathy had reportedly said nobody was following the vision of MGR, in public welfare and that Modi alone could do that.

Two more relatives of MGR’s, his adopted daughter Geetha Madhumohan and his adopted son Appu Ravindran’s wife Nirmala, had joined the BJP last month on his birth centenary.