 "VK Sasikala camp nominates TTV Dhinakaran as AIADMK candidate for RK Nagar bypoll")
On Wednesday, the Sasikala camp nominated TTV Dhinakaran as the AIADMK candidate for the RK Nagar bypoll, CNN-News18 reported.
JUST IN | Sasikala camp nominates TTV Dinakaran to contest RK Nagar by-poll pic.twitter.com/NVe3RTKthz
— News18 (@CNNnews18) November 29, 2017
This comes just days after AIADMK announced a "restructuring" of its parliamentary board to select a candidate for the bypoll. The Sasikala faction said this decision was taken with the consent of jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, who is also Dhinakaran’s aunt, ANI reported.
With the consent of VK Sasikala, TTV Dinakaran will be our candidate for upcoming by-elections in RK Nagar(Chennai): Anbalagan,TTV faction pic.twitter.com/dNYKpZUBsY
— ANI (@ANI) November 29, 2017
On Wednesday, Dhinakaran visited Sasikala in a Bengaluru prison and had said that party’s candidate for RK Nagar bypoll would be announced after the meeting with the jailed leader. During the parliamentary meeting on Monday, the party had said it has “unanimously” resolved to authorise the AIADMK parliamentary board to select the candidate for the RK Nagar bypoll. The party announced it was “restructuring” the parliamentary board, which now includes Chief Minister K Palaniswamy and deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam. Former ministers KP Munusamy and R Vaithilingam, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, Madhusudhanan, Tamil Magan Hussein, P Valarmathi, A Justin Selvaraj and P Venugopal are the other members of the board. Earlier, deposed and jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala was the head of the board. She had selected her nephew and then AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran for the 12 April bypoll. This news comes a week after the Election Commission (EC) had announced that the party’s disputed 'two leaves' symbol declared that the party symbol belonged to the E Palaniswamy and O Panneerselvam faction and not the VK Sasikala-TTV Dhinakaran camp. The decision came as a boost to the EPS-OPS (E Palaniswamy and O Pannerselvam) camp as the symbol legitimised their claim to the political legacy of MGR and Jayalalithaa. With inputs from PTI
