In ceremony at Jaya memorial, Deepa Jayakumar's husband launches own party

Chennai: J Jayalalithaa’s niece Deepa Jayakumar’s husband Madhavan launched a new political outfit on Friday.

According to reports, Madhavan, who broke away from Deepa’s party – the MGR Amma Deepa Peravai – on March 18, formed MJDMK on Friday, in a ceremony at the Jayalalithaa memorial on Chennai’s Marina beach.

Madhavan and Deepa had launched MGR Amma Deepa Peravai with great fanfare on February 24. However, differences soon surfaced between the two, with Madhavan blaming some ‘evil forces’, which he said had taken over the party. He stated that he could not work independently due to these forces, and quit the party.

Madhavan and Deepa had formed the party after both opposed the selection of Edappadi K Palanisamy, then a Sasikala loyalist, to the CM's post in Tamil Nadu.

"Palanisamy is not the right person people wanted as a chief minister of Tamil Nadu. This kind of hijacking of the party is not good. There is a traitor group working behind the government and we will work continuously to throw away this group," Deepa had said.