AIADMK cracks whip against nine Dinakaran men

Battening down the hatches after the shocking defeat at the hands of rebel leader TTV Dinakaran, the ruling AIADMK on Monday discussed measures to quell the growing voices in the party for a compromise with the RK Nagar bypoll winner and avert the likelihood of exodus to the Dinakaran camp.

The crucial meeting held a day after the by-election result was declared was not attended by a few ministers, including Dindigul C Sreenivasan, ‘Kadambur’ Raju and KT Rajenthra Bhalaji, besides KC Veeramani, who had lashed out at VK Sasikala’s family on many occasions.

The leaders have come under tremendous pressure to keep their flock together after the defeat, which saw the AIADMK’s vote share plummet from over 55.87 per cent in the 2016 Assembly elections to just about 27.30 per cent, a drop by over 28 per cent.

AIADMK co-ordinator O Panneerselvam and joint co-ordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami had explained the poll outcome as a result of DMK diverting its vote share to Dinakaran. But, even if the 20 per cent votes lost by the DMK is deducted from Dinakaran’s 50.32 per cent vote share, he has three per cent votes more than the ruling party. This is due to the huge erosion of the AIADMK votes, but the AIADMK leaders continued to harp on the DMK’s diversion of votes theory and did not come out with any explanation for the steep decline in the party’s support.

Despite the visit of top leaders to the AIADMK headquarters, only a thin crowd of cadre was witnessed after the party’s defeat. Party functionaries attributed the absence of some of the Ministers and functionaries to lack of time for them since the meeting was cancelled at short notice.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Panneerselvam said he was senior to Dinakaran in the party by 18 years and was given the opportunity to become an MLA by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. “I am in the party from 1980, but Dinakaran contested in Parliament elections only in 1998. So, Dinakaran’s claim of helping his growth is false,” he said. He also accused Dinakaran of deceiving the voters by promising them to pay Rs 10,000 each to them. They had lodged a complaint with the Election Commission about the activities of Dinakaran, he said.

The Deputy Chief Minister also compared Dinakaran to the mysterious deer in Ramayan and added that he had several faces to him.

“Setbacks in a party are common, but the party will emerge stronger after rectifying the shortcomings” he asserted.

The meeting, which lasted for about an hour, was presided over by Panneerselvam.