Chennai: In a significant climbdown from his aggressive fighting stance immediately after the Income Tax raids targeting him and his relatives began on Thursday, TTV Dhinakaran on Saturday called himself “just a small fry” with a small group of followers whereas the rival EPS-OPS combine controlled majority of the AIADMK.
“We are not calling ourselves a big party. We are just functioning as a small group under the leadership of Chinamma (VK Sasikala) after the demise of Amma (J Jayalalithaa). We are not in the race to demolish a party to further our interests”, Dhinakaran told reporters in a complete U-turn from his earlier position that his aunt Sasikala controlled the AIADMK.
On Thursday, immediately after the raids began at nearly 180 locations across Tamil Nadu, Dhinakaran had alleged that the searches were part of a “conspiracy by the Union Government in collusion with the Edappadi K Palaniswami Government” in Tamil Nadu with an aim to eliminate “me and Chinamma (Sasikala) from politics.” Dhinakaran had been maintaining even in the Election Commission that he was the “real AIADMK.”
Political observers interpret Dhinakaran's comments as a significant volte-face since he has been claiming all along that he was controlling the AIADMK and had even appointed his followers to crucial posts by removing heavyweights like Palaniswami from his party positions. “It is a significant climbdown and it looks like Dhinakaran is extending an olive branch to those in power at the Centre as he and his family are under the siege of the I-T Department”, a senior political observer said, requesting anonymity.
However, insiders say those in command will not take the political posturing by Dhinakaran seriously since the I-T raids are part of the “Operation Clean Up of Tamil Nadu” launched by the BJP in the aftermath of J Jayalalithaa's death last December. Insiders also say that the BJP has prepared a blueprint for Tamil Nadu's future in which the party hoped to emerge as the alternative to the DMK and AIADMK, which is in complete tatters for about a year now.
During his interaction with reporters on Saturday, Dhinakaran decried “political motive” behind the I-T raids that have targeted the entire “Mannargudi Family” and said the timing was suspect. “We are not against I-T raids, but my question is what the need is to conduct a mega raid with 1,800 people? Why target people like Pugazhendi and Thanga Tamilselvan who are in no way connected to our businesses?” Dhinakaran asked.
The former MP also questioned why only he and his relatives were being targeted and why not those who introduced the 'Sand Baron' Shekhar Reddy to Tamil Nadu. “Why people who had close ties with Shekhar Reddy are being let off? Why people who introduced Shekhar Reddy are not being probed? They have held portfolios like Highways and Public Works Department”, he said in an apparent reference to deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam.
During the course of his interaction with reporters, Dhinakaran said, “nothing has been recovered” from his farmhouse in Aurovile and that I-T raids in premises belonging to him have already ended. He also thanked political leaders like Thol Thirumavalavan, Vaiko, G K Vasan, R Mutharasan, G Ramakrishnan, Su Thirunavukarasar and Karti Chidambaram for calling raids against him as “political vendetta.”
