Chennai: The activities of AIADMK MLAs supporting deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran will be under the scanner in next week's Assembly session since the discussion on demands of two ministers detested by Dhinakaran’s followers will be taken up in the first three days.
If Dhinakaran's supporters want to embarrass the state government, they could move cut motions or absent themselves during the voting on the demands of ministers who had opposed Dhinakaran and said to be close to the Chief Minister. When Assembly session will resume next week, a discussion would be taken on demand for grants to electricity ministry and the next two days will see the discussion on the local administration ministry.
The mood of Dhinakaran's supporters who want the deputy general secretary to be allowed to take up party work, will be gauged during the debate and passing of the two demands.
Dhinakaran seems to be weighing his options since he cancelled the meeting of party functionaries of North Chennai District on Saturday. Earlier, he had planned to meet the district functionaries every day starting from Chennai. The major obstacle for him seems to be party general secretary V.K. Sasikala's unwillingness to topple the government and the staunch opposition of uncle Dhivarkaran, who controls a large chunk of party MLAs.
The clash within the family came to light when police stopped a public meeting organised by Dhinakaran's supporters in Mannargudi, the family's hometown. Some of the vociferous supporters of Dhinakaran including Nanjil Sampath refused to comment on the police action as it came after a complaint from local AIADMK functionary, known to be a Dhivakaran loyalist.
The supporters of the deputy general secretary are restless after the Mannargudi incident, but are unlikely to go against the government without any green signal from Sasikala.
If Dhinakaran's supporters ditch the government on any of the motions or voting on grants, the ruling party will have a strength of about 90 members. Even if the AIADMK (PTA) led by former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam wants to save the government, his support of 12 legislators including himself will not be enough for the purpose.
The DMK has the option of utilising the occasion to mount pressure on Speaker P. Dhanapal with vociferous pleas for a division in voting on demands for grants on crucial occasions, besides bringing cut motions. Though the Speaker could block demands for the division in voting and go for a voice vote, the situation could turn out to be stormy, if the opposition pressed for its demands aggressively.
