Dinakaran stakes claim to AIADMK, will tour state to 'strengthen party'

O Panneerselvam set out on a statewide tour after Edappadi Palanisamy won the vote of confidence in the Tamil Nadu assembly.

Adding a new but expected twist to Tamil Nadu politics, AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran staked claim to the party. On Friday Dinakaran said that he would tour the state to strengthen the party.

Dinakaran who is out on bail after being arrested for attempting to bribe election commission officials for the party symbol released a press note on the AIADMK Amma letterhead to send out the message that he had returned. Dinakaran had said that he would return to take over the party reins in August and on Friday drove the point home that he was still the AIADMK's Deputy General Secretary.

''AIADMK party office is my office and no body can stop me from going there. I will go to the office tomorrow,'' Dinakaran said in Chennai while addressing media.

''We are working towards the merger of factions, very soon you will hear a good news, it could be even before 17th October,'' Dinakaran added.

Dinakaran will begin his statewide tour and cover nine districts in the first phase. His tour's first phase will begin from Madurai on August 19 and will end on October 5 at Sivagangai. He also added that he would hold public meetings at each location.

In a bid to exercise power over the AIADMK ministers, Dinakaran has asked them to be part of all public meetings. With this, the real showdown of who has an upper hand in the AIADMK will begin. Sasikala Natarajan and TTV Dinakaran had given both factions of the AIADMK time until Friday for a merger.

With both factions refusing to go ahead with merger talks, TTV Dinakaran has returned to stake claim to the party and take over its reins.

OneIndia News