Puducherry Congress leader joins AIADMK

Chennai, Feb 14: In a jolt to Congress in Puducherry ahead of Assembly polls, senior leader P Kannan, who had served as Territorial Assembly Speaker and as a Rajya Sabha MP later, today formally joined AIADMK in the presence of its chief J Jayalalithaa here.

Kannan called on Jayalalithaa and joined AIADMK by receiving the primary membership card, a party release said. He had earlier served Congress in various capacities including as Minister, among others.

Kannan had extended moral support to Jayalalithaa, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, when she was jailed in September 2014, in connection with a disproportionate assets case, saying her conviction in the case was not a political setback to her, but she would scale greater heights.

Jayalalithaa was subsequently acquitted by Karnataka High Court in the 19-year-old case and made a triumphant return on May 23 when she became chief minister for a fifth time.

The Puducherry leader has been at odds with the PCC leadership which had stated that Kannan had not worked for the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and had been distancing himself from all activities of the Congress.

PTI