Dinakaran: persona non grata to heir apparent

AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala might be cooling her heels in a Bengaluru prison to serve a four-year sentence but her control over the ruling party remains intact by appointing her nephew and former MP TTV Dinakaran as the party’s deputy general secretary. On Tuesday night, following her conviction, Sasikala asserted that no force could separate her from the AIADMK. “No matter where I will be, I will always think about (my) party,” she told her party workers in Poes Garden, the late Jayalalithaa’s residence, which Sasikala has made her home.

Her assertion came true on Wednesday morning when the AIADMK’s mouthpiece Namathu MGR carried an announcement by Sasikala that her two nephews, Dinakaran and Dr S Venkatesh, former secretary of the party’s youth brigade, were readmitted to the party after accepting their apologies. Within a few hours of the newspaper hitting the stands, she made another announcement appointing Dinakaran as deputy general secretary. In Sasikala’s absence, there is little doubt that he has been tasked with keeping the party under the family’s control. In December 2011, Jayalalithaa had expelled Dinakaran and Dr Venkatesh, along with Sasikala and 11 other family members, for conspiring against her.

However, Jayalalithaa, on March 31, 2012, readmitted Sasikala after her public apology in which she severed ties with her family members who conspired against Jaya. Jayalalithaa also made it very clear that no party worker should have any contact with Sasikala’s family members. Until Jayalalithaa’s demise on December 5 last year, the family members were not seen anywhere near Poes Garden. But the ‘Mannargudi clan’ (Sasikala family) re-emerged when Jayalalithaa’s body was kept in Rajaji Hall on December 6 and soon they also returned to Poes Garden. Since December 5, Dinakaran was always seen with Sasikala. 

When the AIADMK delegation led by Chief Minister O Panneerselvam visited the Poes Garden to request her to take charge as the party’s general secretary, it was Dinakaran who led Sasikala to meet them. He also accompanied Sasikala when she met Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao to stake claim to form the government on February 9. He was again part of the delegation led by Edappadi K Palaniswami when he visited Raj Bhavan on Wednesday. His re-entry into the party has not come as a surprise to many party leaders. Even as the Panneerselvam camp was targeting the Sasikala family’s grip over the party and the government, Sasikala was preparing the ground for Dinakaran’s re-entry on February 13 with a story of an attack made on Jayalalithaa during MG Ramachandran’s funeral. 

“A few relatives of Janaki, MGR’s wife, pushed Jayalalithaa down from the vehicle carrying MGR’s body. Imagine when a well-built and tall person like Jeppiar hit her on the back. I held her from falling down while Dinakaran who was a young boy bit Jeppiar’s hand,” she said. Dinakaran is one of the four siblings born to Sasikala’s sister Vanithamani. His brother VN Sudhakaran was adopted by Jayalalithaa only to be disowned later. His second brother V Bhaskaran was also an influential figure in the party. Both Sudhakaran and Bhaskaran were thrown out of Poes Garden in 1996 itself, but Dinakaran remained close to Jayalalithaa until his expulsion in 2011.

 Of the Mannargudi clan, Dinakaran was the only person to have contested an election. In 1999, he won the Periyakulam Lok Sabha seat, the home turf of Panneerselvam who was then only a municipal chairman. During that election, Dinakaran was staying in Panneerselvam’s house. Impressed by the latter’s hard work and simplicity, Dinakaran gave a helping hand to Panneerselvam’s political career. The close association with Dinakaran also got OPS a chance to become chief minister in 2001. In 2007, Jayalalithaa relieved Dinakaran from the party treasurer’s post and appointed Panneerselvam to that post, signifying a stark reversal of fortunes. Dinakaran also has his share of court cases. Once, to escape Enforcement Directorate cases, he claimed that he was a Singapore citizen. Only this past month, the Madras High Court had upheld the ED tribunal’s order asking Dinakaran to pay a penalty of Rs 25 crore.