Dinakaran not AIADMK office bearer': EC rejects reply on Sasikala elevation

New Delhi: The Election Commission has rejected the response filed by AIADMK on V.K. Sasikala’s elevation as interim general secretary of the party. The reason cited was that the reply was submitted by Sasikala’s nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran, who is not on the poll panel’s list of party office bearers.

The poll body said that a response should be submitted by Sasikala herself and it should come in by March 10. Since Dinakaran is not on the list of party office bearers, “hence the reply should either be submitted under your own signature or you may duly or you may duly authorise somebody to do so in your behalf,” the EC notice said.

The AIADMK has defended the decision to appoint Sasikala as its interim general secretary, saying the general council of the party has the authority to make such an appointment.

It further said that the functioning of the party would have come to a standstill had a new general secretary not been appointed after the demise of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.

In its response to the February 17 notice by the EC, the AIADMK also said the reply was signed by Dinakaran who was hurriedly reinducted into the party and nominated AIADMK deputy general secretary just before she left for a Karnataka prison to serve her remaining sentence in a disproportionate assets case.