The family fade out is happening really fast in the AIADMK. On Tuesday night TTV Dinakaran was arrested by the Delhi crime branch for attempting to bribe EC officials to get back the Two Leaves symbol.
On Wednesday morning the banners of V.K.Sasikala were removed from the party office and replaced with those of Jayalalithaa. These two developments are clear indicators that the party is slowly getting exorcised of the ghost of the Mannargudi clan.
In fact one of the demands of the OPS group was removal of both Sasikala and Dinakaran from the party. As a first step they wanted her banners and pictures removed from the party headquarters, before their team arrived to talk merger with the ruling faction.
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So on Wednesday morning a group of workers removed banners that featured Sasikala and Jayalalithaa and mounted new banners that had only Jayalalithaa in their place. A few photos of Sasikala continued to adorn the party office inside but they too will be removed by the time the OPS group arrives for negotiations.
Removing Sasikala from the post of general secretary may prove trickier as it would have to meet certain legal requiriements. “Her elevation has already been challenged by OPS and others before the EC. So we have to wait for the verdict. Since the general secretary post cannot be left vacant we have to see how to fill the vacancy. Similarly bringing the party organ “Namadhu MGR” under a new management would also need legal steps. But there are no second thoughts about keeping the family out of the party structure,” explained Rajya Sabha MP Viathilingam, who heads the EPS team in the negotatitions.
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As per present indications once the external irritants like banners and photos are out of the way the unification process will pick up speed. “We hope to have a clear and final picture in the next one week,” said Dr. Maithreyan of the OPS group.
