It was a day of marathon meetings and statements from the T.T.V. Dhinakaran camp, indicating that he will leave no stone unturned to get hold of the party. But it remains a question as to what lengths he can go to capture the party; will he go to the extent of toppling the government?
Dhinakaran’s first salvo came on Tuesday when he sacked party senior and Rajya Sabha MP R. Vaithiyalingam, the man who during the merger on August 21, announced the removal of Sasikala. The second round of attack came the next day, when he fired Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar from the Jayalalithaa Peravai wing in the party and appointed one of his favourites, Kennedy. An hour later the next barrage of attacks targeted the Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar, one of the most powerful man in Edappadi K Palanisamy’s cabinet, resulting in his removal from the Karur district secretary post.
Though Dhinakaran had said that he would meet the journalists on August 23, all indications from his swanky residence at Karpagam gardens in Adyar pointed to him preparing for a showdown. Consolidations began while his men were keenly looking at the developments in the EPS and OPS camps. The chief minister and deputy chief minister, though were busy addressing a cheerless crowd at Ariyalur near Trichy commemorating MGR centenary celebrations organised by the government, they believed that the long arm of the centre’s investigation agencies will act in their favour.
Meanwhile, in the Windflower resort in Puducherry, the new landmark in the union territory’s map, was in all news. Om Sakthi Sekar, one of the leaders in Puducherry from the OPS camp, along with his men, sat down to protest in front of the resort, but the Puducherry police ensured that they did not create much ruckus.
Unperturbed with all these, Dhinakaran and his uncle Dhiwakaran continued as if they could wrest the party. Dhiwakaran who earlier said that he cannot give any guarantee that the government will continue to be in power on Wednesday said that “we will topple the government if required and more MLAs are expected to come to our side”.
TTV continued to fire a battery of shuffles and reshuffles within the party, only to say that he will go to any extent to capture the party.
But in what could be called a body blow to Sasikala and her family, her review petition in the Supreme Court, seeking to review the judgment in the disproportionate assets case, sentencing her to four years imprisonment, was dismissed. Meanwhile, Karnataka DIG Roopa’s continuous representations and reports about Sasikala violating the jail norms is also viewed as a setback for the family.
Beyond all this, the major development on Wednesday that made the TTV camp breathe a sigh of relief was all the opposition parties including the Congress and the CPI coming forward to represent to the governor. In a detailed letter to governor, Congress legislative party leader K.R. Ramasamy said the governor should order a trust vote as the ruling party has now lost the majority. However, TTV is adopting a wait and watch strategy as of now. But sources close to him say he has already started fighting back.
