Suspended DMK leader joins AIADMK

Chennai, July 27: Disgruntled senior TMC(M) leader C Gnanasekaran and former district secretary of DMK and three-time MLA, V Karuppasamy Pandian, today joined the ruling AIADMK in the presence of party supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa here.

It is a home coming for Pandian after being expelled by the AIADMK in 2000. An influential Tirunelveli-based leader, he had joined the AIADMK when it was founded in 1972 by former Chief Minister M G Ramachandran.

Gnanasekaran, a four-time MLA and an articulate leader, was the state Vice-President of TMC (M). Under his leadership 68 other functionaries of TMC (M) joined the AIADMK. Pandian had held positions including that of the District Secretary (1980) and State deputy general secretary (1996) in the AIADMK before being expelled.

He later joined the DMK and had functioned as its Tirunelveli (West) District Secretary. He was a loyalist of DMK Treasurer M K Stalin before he found the tide going against him, following a running feud with a section of Tirunelveli-based DMK functionaries, prominent among whom was former Assembly Speaker R Avudaiappan.

He was suspended last year for "violating party principles" and since then had been voicing support for Jayalalithaa. Gnanasekaran was yesterday relieved of his party responsibilities after it became known widely that he was set to join the ruling party.

Speaking to reporters here, he blamed the DMK leadership for taking "wrong decision" during the run up to the recent Assembly elections. The TMC(M), led by former union minister G K Vasan, had tied up with the DMDK-People's Welfare Front combine but drew a blank in the polls.

PTI