The AIADMK leaders also asked the party members not to have any contact with Kafeel who was earlier denied the MLA seat by the AIADMK. Three AIADMK ministers lost their sitting seats Nilofar Kafeel, G Baskaran and S Valarmathi as the seats were allotted to the AIADMK alliance partners.

According to party insiders, a strong internal feud prevailed between Nilofar and local AIADMK district secretary KC Veeramani, though both were ministers in the AIADMK cabinet, Veeramani had a vociferous voice in the party suppressing the supporters of Nilofar. An agitated Nilofar also worked against the minister and the party faced a rout in the Vellore district. Nilofar was in touch with the DMK members and had helped the Jolarpettai DMK candidate Devaraj to win against her bete noire Veeramani.

“The party after analysing the booth level performance of AIADMK candidates found that Nilofar and her supporters had not worked for the party nominees in Tirupattur district. Further, Veeramani recently met AIADMK leaders EPS and OPS and submitted a complaint against the former woman minister,” an informed AIADMK senior said.

Former minister Gokula Indira had also complained against AIADMK district secretaries in Chennai, but still no action was taken, the senior noted.