Expelled AIADMK leaders to meet on April 17

Expelled AIADMK leaders to meet on April 17
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

CHENNAI, APRIL 15: Sedapatti R Muthiah, S Raghupathy and V Karuppasamy Pandian, who have been expelled from the AIADMK on Friday, are planning to meet in Chennai on April 17 to decide their future course of action.

It is learnt that the agenda of the meeting includes moving the court challenging their expulsion. According to sources close to them, others expelled from the party are also reaching out to the three leaders.

Sources added that senior leaders in the AIADMK were asked to donate funds for a private TV channel, which was said to be in doldrums owing to financial constraints. Only two former ministers had obliged. As the others did not, their powers and stature in the party had been reduced. Those close to Sasikala's nephew T T V Dinakaran, Periyakulam MP, were however, given important posts.

Dindigul Srinivasan, who has been recently appointed as the treasurer of the party, is a Thevar, to which community Sasikala belongs. Propaganda secretary O S Manian is a close friend of Divakar, brother of Sasikala.

Muthiah was the Speaker of the Assembly and Ragupathy a minister when AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha was the chief minister between 1991 and 1996. During MGR's regime, Muthiah was a member of the Parliament.

Karuppasamy Pandian was the one of the deputy general secretaries of the party and Tirunelveli district secretary. Jayalalitha had presented a gold chain to Pandian for convening a conference in Tirunelveli at which the BJP-AIADMK alliance was finalised.