Sasikala sacked as interim general secretary by AIADMK GC meet

Chennai :  The AIADMK’s top policy making body today showed the door to incarcerated interim general secretary VK Sasikala, removing her from the post and declaring all appointments made by her as invalid. The General Council meet also did away with the powerful General Secretary post, adopting resolutions to these effect.

The keenly awaited meeting declared as invalid all appointments and removals made by Sasikala till February 15 when she surrendered in a Bengaluru court in connection with a corruption case. With the general council declaring that decisions taken by Sasikala were not valid, the appointment of her nephew Dhinkaran to the post by her is also annuled by default.

Sasikala was appointed to the post on December 29 by the AIADMK general council in the aftermath of the death of party supremo J Jayalalithaa. However, a day after the Supreme Court convicted her and two others in a disproportionate assets case, she had surrendered in the court and was lodged in the central prison in Bengaluru on February 15.

Today’s meeting also decided to create two new posts– Coordinator and Joint Coordinator to run the party. Party top leaders deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam and chief minister K Palaniswami will be the Coordinator and Joint Coordinator respectively till elections are held to the posts.

Meeting after the green signal by the Madras High Court, which declined a plea to stay the event, the General Council also gave administrative powers to the Coordinator and Joint Coordinator to steer the party. “Following an atmosphere of shock of Amma’s (Jayalalithaa) untimely death and concern, V K Sasikala was appointed as interim general secretary to attend to routine party work.

“This General Council unanimously resolves to cancel her appointment made on December 29, 2016. (It also) resolves that all those appointments and removals made by her between December 30, 2016 and February 15, 2017 are not valid,” the meeting, the second since Jayalalithaa’s death, resolved.

After the merger of the factions led by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam on August 21, a senior functionary has said steps would be taken to remove Sasikala from the top party post, a key demand of then rebel camp for the unification.

The move triggered a rebellion by 19 MLAs loyal to sidelined deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran who met Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidayasagar Rao and expressed lack of confidence in the chief minister. Before proceeding to Bengaluru court, Sasikala had re-inducted Dhinakaran and appointed him as her deputy. She had also reinstated another of her relative S Venkatesh in the AIADMK.

In 2011, Sasikala and scores of her relatives, including Dhinakaran and Venkatesh, were expelled from AIADMK by then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa though she later re-inducted the former, her close aide, alone. The General Council also resolved that appointments and other changes made by Dhinakaran were not valid and that they were not ‘acceptable’ to party laws.

On doing away with the General Secretary post, the council, which described Jayalalithaa as “permanent” General Secretary, said none can fill the void caused by her demise and party founder the late M G Ramachandran. “Accordingly, bylaw no.43 is being amended. The General Council unanimously approves this,” it said.

The meeting was attended by, among others, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam and presided over by party presidium chairman E Madusudhanan.