AIADMK cracks whip against Dinakaran supporters

Reacting to the crackdown on his loyalists, Dinakaran said they had "no authority" to act against them.

AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and co-coordinator K Palaniswami announced "removing" 44 functionaries from the party's primary membership.

Those who faced the action included R Samy, a former MLA from Melur in Madurai and a staunch Dinakaran supporter.

In a joint statement, Panneerselvam and Palaniswami named the functionaries, holding various posts including membership to the powerful decision making general council and covering the AIADMK units in Madurai, Villupuram, Dharmapuri, Tiruchirappalli and Perambalur, among others.

They were being "removed" since they went against the party's principles and brought "disrepute" to the AIADMK, they said in the statement.

"Party workers are requested not to have any truck with them," Palaniswami, also the chief minister, and his deputy Panneerselvam, said in the statement.

Panneerselvam and Palaniswami "relieved" two others from party posts in Puthukottai and Vellore districts.

Responding to the action, Dinakaran said "this is not a big issue at all."

"It is only Palaniswami and Panneerselvam and co who have betrayed the party. Only they should be expelled by us. Only the general secretary can expel (functionaries)," he said in an apparent reference to deposed party leader VK Sasikala.

Following the death of AIADMK supremo and then chief minister J Jayalalithaa in December last year, Sasikala was appointed party's interim general secretary.

After a patch-up between rival camps headed by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, a party general council headed by them in September this year had annulled her appointment.

However, Dinakaran and his supporters continue describing her as the "AIADMK general secretary."

Palaniswami and Panneerselvam "have no authority" to expel people from AIADMK, he told reporters at Bengaluru.

Stung by the RK Nagar bypoll defeat, the ruling camp on December 25 had cracked the whip against nine party functionaries.

The two leaders had then sacked four of Dinakaran's aides as district secretaries, while expelling five others.

Dinakaran won the December 21 RK Nagar bypoll defeating the ruling AIADMK's candidate E Madhusudhanan by a thumping margin of over 40,000 votes.

The bypoll, necessitated due to the death of

Jayalalithaa who was the sitting MLA, was seen as a litmus test for the 20-month-old AIADMK government.

Dinakaran, sidelined by the ruling camp a few months ago, won as an independent candidate.

He had earlier lost his battle for the party symbol 'Two Leaves' to the Palaniswami-led camp and contested the election on pressure cooker symbol.