Sasikala, TTV move HC against their removal from AIADMK posts

Sidelined AIADMK leaders V K Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran have filed a civil suit in the Madras High Court against their removal from party posts and sought a direction to restrict rival leaders from operating party bank accounts.

When the suit came up for hearing today, Justice C V Karthikeyan ordered notice to O Panneerselvam and E Palaniswami, currently the coordinator and joint coordinator respectively of the unified AIADMK, and other senior leaders in their camp E Madhusudhanan, S Semmalai, and Dindigul C Sreenivasan, returnable by November 29.

The court directed AIADMK headquarters manager P Mahalingam to submit by November 10 the details of bank accounts maintained by the party and persons authorised to operate them.

Sasikala and Dhinakaran, removed as general secretary and deputy general secretary respectively at a general council meeting of AIADMK held on September 12 here, sought to restrain Palaniswami and Panneerselvam led (EPS-OPS) group from holding organisational posts in the party.

They prayed the court to declare as illegal and void the resolutions passed in the September 12 general council meeting removing them from the party posts.

Pressing for an interim injunction against the EPS-OPS group from operating the bank accounts of the AIADMK, the plaintiffs claimed that only M Rangasamy, MLA, who was 'appointed' as the party treasurer by Sasikala in September was entitled to operate the accounts.

The suit also made the branch managers of Karur Vysya Bank, Mylapore, Indian Bank, Abhiramapuram, and Bank of India, Cathedral Road, as defendants.

The plaintiffs also sought the court to restrain the EPS-OPS group from conducting general council meeting of the party and not to interfere in their rights from functioning as the general secretary and deputy general secretary and discharge their day-to-day duties.

The Sasikala-Dhinakaran group is locked in a battle with the EPS-OPS group for supremacy in the party and government.

Eighteen MLAs loyal to Dhinakaran had been disqualified by the Assembly Speaker under the anti-defection law for alleged anti-party activities.

Petitions challenging their disqualification is pending in the high court.

PTI