Chennai: The supporters of AIADMK (Amma) deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran will not take part in the MLAs meeting to be convened by Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on September 5.
Speaking to the media, Thanga Thamizhselvan, a key supporter of Dhinakaran, said they would not attend the party legislators meeting as along as Palaniswami remained the Chief Minister.
The meeting would be held at the party headquarters in the morning. Besides MLAs, district secretaries have been invited to the meeting. The invitations had been given to all the legislators including those supporting Dhinakaran.
Commenting on the meeting, the 21 MLAs supporting Dhinakaran were firm in supporting him. He also said the number of MLAs in his group would rise to 25.
The Chief Minister had the powers only to convene the MLAs meeting and he did not have powers to call for district secretaries meeting. The meeting of general council or district secretaries could be convened only by the general secretary or deputy general secretary of the party. "We were not invited for the meeting of MLAs last time. We do not know how we have been called for this meeting. We are firm in our demand. We were issued notice through the party whip for disqualifying us. But, on what basis they are inviting us?", he asked.
Palaniswami did not have the authority to convene the meeting. The decisions to be taken at such a meeting would be invalid and would not be binding on the MLAs, he said.
Meanwhile, two MPs who were supporting Palaniswami switched sides to Dhinakaran saying that the NEET issue was the reason behind their decision, Vellore MP B. Senguttuvan and Dindigul MP M. Udhayakumar met Dhinakaran at his residence. Senguttuvan said deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam alleged that Palaniswami government was corrupt. But, he joined with Palaniswami after getting deputy Chief Minister post. They were plundering the state for own selfish gains, he said and asserted that Tamil Nadu government is the most corrupt one in the country.
The number of MPs supporting Dhinakaran had gone up to six with the two new MPs joining his camp. Already, A.P. Nagaraj (Coimbatore) and Rajya Sabha MPs Navaneethakrishnan, Vijila Sathyanand and Gopalakrishnan are supporting Dhinakaran.
