Dhinakaran warns party factions to mend ways or be mended

AIADMK (Amma) leader TTV Dhinakaran on Tuesday warned the party factions led by Chief Minister E K Palaniswami and O Pannerselvam to mend their ways or be prepared to be ‘mended’.

"They should mend their ways and come back to the party fold… or they will be mended," Dhinakaran told reporters after offering prayers at the Meenakshi temple.

Without naming anyone Dhinakaran said they were "committing mistakes".

To reclaim his position in the party after Palaniswami camp adopted resolution on August 10 declaring Dhinakaran’s appointment as the party’s deputy general secretary as illegal.

Dhinakaran on Monday had held an rally at Melur near here which was attended by 19 MLAs and six MPs.

Dhinakaran attacked Palaniswami, who is still with the AIADMK (Amma), saying he got the chief minister's post only because of Sasikala.

Dhinakaran said the AIADMK was a strong party of 1.2 crore cadres and all efforts would be made to strengthen it further.

At yesterday's rally, he had accused the Palaniswami camp of trying to oust him and "usurp" the party. He had vowed to reclaim the AIADMK's 'two leaves' election symbol that was frozen following a split in the party.

Earlier in April the two factions were negotiating on merger but things did not materialise.

Panneerselvam camp has already approached the Election Commission seeking annulment of the appointment of Dhinakaran and Sasikala. 

Sasikala is serving a prison term in a disproportionate assets case in which late chief minister J Jayalalithaa was the main accused.

With PTI inputs