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Lakshmi Subramanian
Lakshmi Subramanian

TAMIL NADU

Ahead of crucial AIADMK meet, Dhinakaran threatens to topple government

PTI9_7_2017_000175B [File] "If the chief minister is not removed, we will send this government back home," says Dhinakaran | PTI

In a strong political statement, sidelined AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala’s nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran said on Monday that he was ready to send the Tamil Nadu government packing.

“We want Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisamy to be changed. If the chief minister is not removed, we will send this government back home,” he said at a press conference in Chennai. 

At a time when the Madras High Court refused to issue stay for the crucial general council meeting scheduled to be held in Chennai on Tuesday, Dhinakaran’s statement assumes significance, showing his desperation to topple the government. 

The Dhiankaran camp was desperate to stop conducting of Tuesday's general council, as there are all possible chances for the council to resolve against the Sasikala clan. When Justice C.V. Karthikeyan refused to stay the meeting, the Dhinakaran camp MLA, who had filed the petition, immediately went on to appeal to the Chief Justice. However, the two judge bench comprising Justice Rajiv Shether and Justice Abdul Kuthus late in the evening refused to stay the meeting, adjourning the case for further hearing to September 24.

While the court observed that the general council can go ahead as per schedule, the decisions taken at the meeting will be subject to the final verdict of the Madras High Court.

With the court giving green signal to the general council, Dhinakaran made it clear that he was in the collision path. Undermined and largely ignored not just by the AIADMK party cadres but also by the people of the state, Dhinakaran seems to be taking the centre stage in the party's present struggle. His tone and body language were so assertive that he is prepared to wage an all-out war against the Palaniswami faction and topple the government.

Dhinakaran sounds the battle cry despite the fact that three FERA cases are hanging like a Damocles' sword on his head and that he is pretty much aware that the legal course will come to haunt him in the near future.

With the infighting within the AIADMK getting murkier and the opposition leaders' strong statement against Governor Vidhyasagar Rao, the political instability in the state is spiralling out of control day by day. It has been almost a year since AIADMK's former supremo J.Jayalalithaa went out of Tamil Nadu's political radar leaving her party to perish by itself.

“It is anarchism to the core and how long the Centre is going to allow this is a million dollar question,” says one of the AIADMK MLAs, who has chosen to stay away from all the warring factions. 

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