Days after expelling OPS, EPS sacks both his sons & 16 others

CHENNAI: AIADMK interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday expelled a total of 18 senior party functionaries including coordinator Panneerselvam's son P Ravindhranath Kumar, who is a member of Parliament from Theni district.

A statement from the AIADMK's "interim general secretary" Palaniswami also announced dismissal of Pannerselvam's other son V P Jayapradeep from the party. The list of expelled leaders ranged from district secretaries, former legislators and former MPs. The release stated that the expelled members were involved in anti-party activities and urged the party workers not to have any allegiance with sacked members. Accordingly, they were also stripped from the AIADMK primary membership.

AIADMK party sources said that Ravindhranath's dismissal from the party was no surprise since it was expected after the AIADMK's recent party head council meeting, which was led by Palaniswami.

"All the cadres including senior ministers in the Edapaddi camp were totally upset at Ravindhranath for openly supporting DMK after he had a meeting with the DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin", party sources said.

Theni district secretary Syed khan, trade wing secretary VNP Venkatraman, former Namadu Amma editor Marudhu Alaguraj, Pudhuchery AIADMK functionary Om Shakthi Sekar and former minister Vellamandi Natarajan were some of the big names that were part of the expelled leaders’ list. It may be noted that the EPS had already expelled AIADMK leaders OPS, R Vaithilingam, Manoj Pandian and J C D Prabakar.