Velumani tells Dinakaran to emulate Janaki

Dinakaran should keep away and not try again to get the party’s ‘Two Leaves’ symbol after his faction had failed to get it, the Municipal Administration Minister told reporters here. 

He was replying to a question on Dinakaran’s stand that his faction would move the Supreme Court challenging the Election Commission’s November 23 order allotting the symbol to the unified AIADMK headed by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and his Deputy O Panneerselvam. “It is better Dinakaran keeps away from the party, as was done by MGR’s wife Janaki,” he said.

The AIADMK had suffered a split after the death of MGR and both the late Janaki and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa had then staked a claim to the party symbol. 

However, after the then two factions merged, the EC allotted the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol to the unified party in February 1989 and Janaki kept away from political activities with Jayalalithaa taking full control of the AIADMK. Asked about the death of a software engineer in a road accident on Saturday after he reportedly hit an arch erected as part of MGR centenary celebrations here, the Minister said it happened as the lorry was coming on a one-way stretch. Velumani accused DMK MLA N Karthik of spreading falsehood about the incident. There was a CCTV footage to prove that the lorry driver was coming on the wrong side, he said. 

Earlier, Velumani, along with his Ministerial colleagues Dindigul Sreenivasan, KA Sengottaiyan and Sellur Raju and Deputy Speaker Pollachi V Jayaraman, flagged off a mobile exhibition on the achievements of MG Ramachandran.