'He was threatened, lured', says Dinakaran on Jakkaiyan supporting EPS-OPS faction

The Dhinakaran camp had revolted a day after the factions led by Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam merged.

TTV Dinakaran on Thursday said AIADMK MLA STK Jakkaiyan, who is said to have shifted his loyalty towards OPS-EPS, was threatened and lured for party posts.

It was earlier reported that Jakkaiyan, who was one of 19 MLAs to have sided with Dinakaran following the merger of Panneerselvam and Palaniwami faction of AIADMK, had decided to support EPS-OPS faction.

"He was threatened and lured for party posts," news agency ANI quoted Dinakaran as saying.

The Dhinakaran camp had revolted a day after the factions led by Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam merged.

On August 24, AIADMK issued a whip seeking disqualification of the 19 MLAs supporting sidelined deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran from the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

The 19 AIADMK MLAs who initially extended support to Dinakaran are - P Vetrivel, Thangatamilselvan, T A Elumalai, M Kothandabani, NG Parthiban, C Jayanthi Parthiban, R Balasubramani, P Palaniappan, R Murugan, R Thangadurai, V Senthil Balaji, M Rengasamy, S Mariappan Kennedy, K Kathirkamu, SDK Jakkaiyan, LG Subramani, S Muthiah, K Uma Maheswari and R Sundararaj.

In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, the AIADMK needs at least 117 votes to remain in power. Right now, the two-leaf party has 134 seats in the Assembly, excluding the House Speaker's and Jayalalithaa's seat. However, while Palaniswami claims to have 104 MLAs on his side and Panneerselvam 10, Dinakaran has at least 22 including three Independent MLAs.

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