CHENNAI: To the existing 53 office-bearers in the ruling AIADMK, TTV Dhinakaran has now added another 60-twenty of them are legislators, of whom Senthil Balaji, P. Palaniappan and Thoppu Venkatachalam are former ministers. Apart from that TTV's 60 includes 12 former ministers who are not MLAs now.
While firebrand Nanjil Sampath, who has been vociferous in defending Chinnamma and TTV, was made the deputy propaganda secretary, Senthil Balaji was appointed as one of the many organising secretaries.
Also to strengthen his hold in the city and apparently with an eye on local body polls, Dhinakaran brought in former Minister 'Madhavaram' Moorthy, former AIADMK floor leader in Chennai Corporation Sugumar Babu and former minister T K M Chinnaiah by giving them party posts at the state level.
Interestingly, majority of the 'rewarded' people had been stripped of their positions or refused Assembly tickets by Jayalalithaa-TTV included.
In a separate press release, Dhinakaran announced his statewide tour from August 14 and interestingly there was a mention of him distributing freebies to party cadre raising questions about how he would get access to party funds. Treasurer Dindigul Sreenivasan, who is with EPS camp, is in charge of party funds and even in his personal capacity, Dhinakaran may not be able to spend since he is already under the scanner of agencies.
The press releases signed by Dhinakaran said he was undertaking the statewide tour on the instructions from jailed party general secretary V K Sasikala as part of the MGR centenary celebrations.
At least half a dozen MLAs and former legislators met Dhinakaran during the day on Friday and at the end of the day-long discussions, the former Periyakulam MP said he would begin the first phase of the state-wide tour fRom Melur in Madurai district on August 14 followed by North Chennai district on August 23.
"I will visit Theni on August 29, Karur on September 5, Thanjavur on September 12, Tirunelveli on September 23, Dharmapuri on September 26, Tiruchi on September 30 and Sivaganga on October 5," the AIADMK leader said in the statement.
The venue have been selected as part of a well-planned strategy to put up a "show of strength" since majority of the district secretaries in these areas are "stoutly behind" Dhinakaran, sources said.
