AIADMK to seal Sasikala’s fate at general council meet
Amid the rebellion by 23 MLAs loyal to its sidelined deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran, the AIADMK at a meeting on Monday decided to convene the party’s general council, where a decision to remove jailed party general secretary V K Sasikala from the post could be taken.
The general council meeting will be held here on September 12 at 10.35 a.m. As per party laws, fifteen days notice has to be given to general council members for the meeting. Individual invitations will be sent to some 1400 general council members.
The meeting was chaired by O Panneerselvam, deputy chief minister who is also the convenor of the 11-member AIADMK panel and chief minister Edapadi Palanisami who is the co-convenor of the panel.
The meeting also declared that the appointment of Dinakaran as the party’s deputy chief was invalid. And, consequently, none of his decisions – appointing office bearers or sacking existing ones — will be valid.
AIADMK sources maintained that though none of the four resolutions adopted at the meeting mentioned Sasikala’s removal, the very fact that the general council meeting is being convened was an indication that her days were numbered. A senior party leader told reporters that “she will certainly be ousted”.
“So far the election commission has not acknowledged the appointment of Sasikala as general secretary and hence the appointment of Dinakaran as deputy general secretary is also not valid,” one of the resolutions said. Hence, the appointments made by him too are not valid.
Observers feel that Dinarkaran’s rebellion may have forced the party not to expel Sasikala for now. According to unconfirmed reports, other than the rebels, several MLAs were also missing from the meeting which may have unnerved the now merged EPS-OPS combine.