High drama in Chennai with caretaker TN Chief Minister O Panneerselvam accusing Sasikala of taking AIADMK MLAs hostage; MLAs refute charges
Political uncertainty in Tamil Nadu continued for the fourth consecutive day on Friday as Governor Vidyasagar Rao kept both caretaker Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala guessing about his next move. The Governor also held a meeting with Chief Secretary Girija Vaidyanathan, Director General of Police (DGP) TK Rajendran, and Chennai Police Commissioner S George to discuss the political stalemate.
As the uncertainty grew, both camps were busy outwitting each other, indulging in tit-for-tat actions. While Sasikala sacked party presidium chairman E Madhusudanan, replacing him with KA Sengottaiyan, Madhusudanan claimed that he had already written to the Election Commission that Sasikala stands expelled as General Secretary.
Madhusudanan further asked the party cadres to begin preparation for the election to the general secretary post, which, he said, will be held as per the party rules framed by party founder MG Ramachandran. “We will also constitute a committee to take care of the party properties,” he added.
On Friday, both sides exuded confidence that they would be invited to form the next government. After meeting party MPs, Sasikala, who is claiming the support of 129 MLAs, said she was confident that the Governor would “protect democracy and act according to the Constitution”.
Panneerselvam was in a more combative mood. “No one can dream to hijack the movement build by Amma. We will not allow that to happen. If any one family hopes to capture both the party and the government, it will become a daydream,” he told supporters outside his house on Greenways Road. He also alleged that the Sasikala camp has held hostage other AIADMK legislators in a resort on the East Coast Road near Mahabalipuram.
Panneerselvam was referring to a plea filed in the Madras High Court by a social worker and some relatives of the MLAs, asking the court to direct the MLAs ‘imprisoned’ by the Sasikala camp be set free. The petitioners also alleged that the MLAs were out of reach and their phones switched off. However, on Friday some of the MLAs surfaced and told the media that they were not being held hostages and they were staying in the resort on their own.
Asked about their phones being switched off, the legislators alleged that they were getting continuous calls from the public and so had to switch the phones off. AIADMK MLA SP Shanmughanathan, who is in the Panneerselvam camp, had filed a police complaint accusing Sasikala and minister Edappadi Palanisamy of forcefully taking the signatures of the legislators on Wednesday and locking them up in the resort.
While both the AIADMK camps were busy working their political strategies, other parties were not sitting idle either. On Friday evening, Leader of the Opposition and DMK working president MK Stalin called on the Governor to take Constitutional steps to mitigate the situation. “I have asked the Governor to convene the Assembly immediately and also to set free the MLAs held as hostages, so as to enable them to take own decision,” he said.
Tamil Nadu Congress president Su. Thirunavukkarasar, former finance minister P Chidambaram, and former TNCC president EVKS Elangovan, meanwhile, held talks with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on the political development in the state. Sources said that while the BJP backing the OPS camp, the party’s state president is said to be in favour of supporting the Sasikala camp. However they added that Chidambaram and Elangovan were opposed to Sasikala and wanted to adopt a wait and watch.
SC REJECTS PLEA
The Supreme Court on Friday once again declined to hear the plea to restrain VK Sasikala from becoming Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister till the judgment in a Disproportionate Assets (DA) case involving her is pronounced. Senthil Kumar of Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, an NGO, had first approached the apex court on Monday evening, a day before Sasikala was expected to take oath as chief minister, contending that if she was convicted and forced to resign, there could be a “possibility of riots erupting all over Tamil Nadu”.
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