After RK Nagar Bypoll Defeat, AIADMK Sacks 6 TTV Dhinakaran Loyalists From Party Posts

TTV Dhinakaran on Sunday won the RK Nagar by-polls by a margin of 40,707 votes defeating AIADMK's E Madhusudhanan, DMK candidate N Maruthu Ganesh and BJP's Karu Nagarajan.

Chennai, Dec 25: The ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Monday sacked six office-bearers supporting sidelined party leader TTV Dhinakaran. The decision was taken at a crucial meeting called by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami and his deputy O Panneerselvam a day after AIADMK’s humiliating defeat in RK Nagar bypoll. The party expelled six district secretaries, seen to be close to Dhinakaran.

The AIADMK removed S Vetrivel, Thanga Tamil Selvan, Rangaswamy, Muththaiya, VP Kalairajan and Sholinghur Parthiban from the post of party’s secretary. TTV Dhinakaran on Sunday won the RK Nagar by-polls by a margin of 40,707 votes defeating AIADMK’s E Madhusudhanan, DMK candidate N Maruthu Ganesh and BJP’s Karu Nagarajan. Though AIADMK supporters are divided between Dhinakaran and the Palaniswami-led camps, many office-bearers from the rival group hold party posts.

Dhinakaran’s victory in RK Nagar byelection, against all odds, including loss of Two Leaves symbol and a slew of cases against him, is being seen as a worrying development both for AIADMK and principal opposition DMK, which finished third behind the ruling party.

Following the death of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK had split into three factions, led respectively by O Panneerselvam, Chief Minister K Palaniswami and VK Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran. The Dinakaran faction was said to be upset over isolation in the party after E Palaniswami and rebel leader O Panneerselvam merged their factions and removed Sasikala from the post of party’s general secretary.

Post the EPS-OPS merger, a general council meeting of AIADMK in September had annulled the appointment of Sasikala as the party general secretary and all subsequent appointments/removals made by her, including that of Dhinakaran as party’s deputy general secretary. Unfazed, 54-year old Dhinakaran moved on confidently and continued to meet his supporters in all the districts.

In RK Nagar bypoll, Dhinakaran got 89,013 votes while Madhusudhanan secured 48,306 votes. Ganesh got 24,651 votes, while Nagarajan amassed 1417 votes. In about two decades, he is the first independent candidate to be elected in Tamil Nadu and that too with such a huge margin scoring higher than that of Jayalalithaa in 2016 Assembly polls.

In that election, Jayalalithaa had won by a margin of 39,545 votes defeating DMK nominee Shimla Muthuchozhan. While Jayalalithaa secured 97,218 votes, the DMK candidate 57,673 votes.

(With agency inputs)