AIADMK says Sasikala will not be taken back, slams bid to create confusion

PTI, May 31, 2021, 6:12 PM IST

Krishnagiri: The AIADMK on Monday hit out at VK Sasikala and decried bid to create confusion saying she is not with the party and would not be taken back, a day after she hinted at the revival of attempts to regain control of the party.

Asking her to keep away from the party, senior party leader KP Munusamy asserted that under no circumstances could Sasikala enter the AIADMK.

There is no chance for her to join the party again and the cadres are clear about not allowing her to get back, Munusamy, party deputy coordinator, told reporters at Veppanahalli, near here.

The AIADMK has hit back after Sasikala’s conversations with her loyalists over the phone surfaced on Sunday in which she indicated efforts to get back control of the party.

Without mentioning the name of AIADMK or its top two leaders O Panneerselvam or K Palaniswami, she had spoken about differences between them and infighting, prompting her to act to safeguard the party interests.

Munusamy said Sasikala is not with the AIADMK and she has no links whatsoever to the party.

To somehow create confusion in the party that is being run well, misinformation was being spread by projecting Sasikala, he alleged.

The aim is only to divert cadres and functionaries and create confusion and this attempt would not succeed, he said.

Not even a single AIADMK worker would fall prey to the design aimed at creating confusion, he said.

To a question on Sasikala speaking to loyalist party workers, he said no party worker called her up over the phone but it was she who was calling workers of her nephew Dhinakaran-led Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam.

No party worker from the AIADMK spoke to her, he said.

Sasikala should keep herself away from the AIADMK and remain quiet to see that late party supremo J Jayalalithaa’s ‘Atma’ is propitiated and she must do this as her present status and that of her family was due to the late chief minister, he said.

Countering Sasikala who claimed that the party was built by the hard work of people including her, Munusamy said the party’s strength was its countless workers right from the days of party founder MG Ramachandran and not Sasikala.

”However, they clung to the party aiming at gains. Hankering for power and eyeing advantages, they are trying to do that (again). For sure, they will not get an opportunity. They will not be able to enter the party,” he said without mentioning Sasikala or Dhinakaran’s name, adding this was the conscious stand of all party workers.

Asked on alleged differences between Palaniswami and Panneerselvam reflected by separate statements from them on public issues, he ruled out differences.

It was quite natural for them to echo region-specific matters, to represent the issues of their respective Assembly constituencies, Munusamy said.

The top two AIADMK leaders however issued joint statements on matters related to the party.

While there are no differences between the top two leaders, some ”opportunists and chameleons,” are trying to create a perception of differences between them to make gains out of it, he said and ”cautioned” Sasikala to not become prey to such designs.

After the former Chief Minister’s Jayalalithaa’s demise in 2016 December, Sasikala, her confidante, became AIADMK interim general secretary.

After she was imprisoned in a Bengaluru prison in February 2017 in an assets case, her appointment as interim chief was rescinded at a General Council meeting held in September of that year.

The GC meeting also announced the invalidation of all the appointments made by Dhinakaran.

This meet also created new posts of coordinator and co-coordinator for Panneerselvam and Palaniswami respectively, giving them all powers.

Ahead of the council meeting, factions led by the two leaders came together, while Sasikala and her followers were eased out of the party.

Since then, the AIADMK had made it clear that there was no scope for rapprochement with Sasikala or her relatives.