Three AIADMK MLAs decline party posts offered by VK Sasikala-TTV Dinakaran faction of party

Chennai: The AIADMK faction led by general secretary VK Sasikala and deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran on Saturday suffered a setback when three MLAs declined to accept party posts offered by them. On Friday night, Dinakaran announced the appointment of over 60 party cadres to various party posts, stating that it was done with the consent of their jailed leader Sasikala. The appointees included 20 MLAs. [caption id=“attachment_3893309” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran. PTI[/caption] Those who accepted the posts met Dinakaran at his residence in Chennai and greeted him. However, three MLAs declined to accept the posts - an incident said to be happening perhaps for the first time in the party’s history. Speaking to reporters, K Palani representing the Sriperumbudur Assembly constituency, said he was satisfied with the legislator post offered by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and did not need any new post. Similarly two other AIADMK legislators, AK Bose and P Sathya, also declined the new party posts offered. Tamil Nadu finance minister D Jayakumar questioned the appointment of office bearers by Dinakaran as the election of Sasikala as General Secretary is in itself disputed and was yet to be decided by the courts and the Election Commission. On the other hand, Dinakaran’s camp lawmaker P Vetrivel wondered whether Jayakumar and others would resign their posts as they were appointed by Sasikala. Couple of months ago, Jayakumar announced that Dinakaran would be kept out of party affairs so that talks for merger with the faction led by former chief minister O Panneerselvam could progress. Dinakaran said he would wait for 60 days and then would enter active politics. The 60 day deadline ended on Friday and he appointed party members to various party posts. Dinkaran had earlier announced that he would be going to the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai but later changed his plans and announced that he would tour the state. Following the death of Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK had split into different factions. One faction is led by Panneerselvam, who rebelled against the leadership of VK Sasikala. The other two factions are led by Chief Minister E Palaniswamy and Sasikala, respectively. Panneerselvam had on Friday announced protests against Palaniswamy’s government across the state on 10 August.