Chennai, Feb. 14: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a huge blow to AIADMK General Secretary V.K. Sasikala by upholding her conviction for corruption but there was no end to the ugly war for power in Tamil Nadu.
Hours after the apex court ruling, Sasikala, as the party chief, axed acting Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and 19 more leaders from the AIADMK. But Panneerselvam refused to give up.
The MLAs backing Sasikala -- who wished to take over as Chief Minister before Panneerselvam revolted -- and holed up at a resort near here also elected E. Palanisamy as their new legislature party leader.
Palanisamy, the Minister for Public Works, Highways and Minor Ports, lost no time in asking Governor C. Vidayasagar Rao to let him prove his majority in the assembly and form a government.
In New Delhi, the Supreme Court restored the earlier conviction of Sasikala, a long-time confidante of the late J. Jayalalithaa, and her two relatives, V.N. Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, for corruption.
Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Amitava Roy set aside a Karnataka High Court order acquitting the three and Jayalalithaa, who died on December 5.
Sasikala cannot contest elections for 10 years, including the four years she will be in jail. She was also fined Rs 10 crore. The apex court told Sasikala and her relatives to surrender immediately to the trial court, which convicted them on September 27, 2014.Justice Roy voiced deep concern over the “escalating menace of corruption in society”. The four, Jayalalithaa included, were convicted for amassing assets disproportionate to known sources of income to the tune of Rs 66.65 crore when the former Chief Minister ruled Tamil Nadu in 1991-96. The ruling set off celebrations in the Panneerselvam camp. His supporters burst firecrackers and danced outside his residence.
In a bid to win over the MLAs siding with Sasikala, Panneerselvam called the Supreme Court ruling “good news” and said “Amma” was still guiding the AIADMK and urged all legislators to unite.
“It is up to the MLAs to resolve the crisis. I urge everyone to forget the differences and unite,” he told his cheering supporters. A fuming Sasikala, facing arrest, vowed to challenge the verdict. She sacked from the AIADMK Panneerselvam and 19 other leaders on charges of acting against the party’s policies and principles. They included School Education Minister K. Pandiarajan and former ministers C. Ponnaiyan, P.H. Pandian, Natham R. Viswanathan, K.P. Munusamy and P. Mohan. But the MLAs and MPs backing Panneerselvam were spared.
The opposition hailed the Supreme Court verdict too. DMK Working President M.K. Stalin said: “Justice has been restored. Now the Governor should take steps to ensure a stable government in Tamil Nadu.”
Congress spokesperson Gopanna told IANS: “Justice has been delivered after 20 years.”
Amid reports that Panneerselvam supporters may reach the resort where pro-Sasikala MLAs are putting up, security was tightened at the venue.
The infighting in the AIADMK erupted after Jayalalithaa passed away and Sasikala was elected the ruling party’s General Secretary on February 5.
She was then chosen the leader of the AIADMK legislature party, paving the way for her to become the Chief Minister. That is when Panneerselvam, who had been twice acting Chief Minister earlier, revolted and alleged that he was forced by Sasikala to resign. As of now, most MLAs are with Sasikala but many MPs have switched loyalty.
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Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on February 14 made a fervent appeal to those in Sasikala’s camp to go by their “conscience” in taking forward the government that was led by ‘Amma’ (Jayalalithaa).
Panneerselvam’s appeal came within hours of the Supreme Court upholding the conviction of AIADMK General Secretary V K Sasikala in a disproportionate assets case trashing her hopes of becoming the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
“Due to a few incidents, there had been a small impediment in continuance of her government. To remove this temporary impediment and to take forward the good governance of Amma, it is our duty to take steps according to our conscience,” Panneerselvam said.
“This is our duty and way of showing our gratitude to her (Jayalalithaa),” he said.
Panneerselvam said the party had won last year’s Assembly elections due to Amma’s welfare schemes and people want those to continue, for which “all of our support is essential.”
“I therefore request the ministers and MLAs to factor in the present circumstances and decide what kind of decision will ensure the party’s unity and continuance of the government, and act accordingly,” he said in a statement.
“Further, let us also put behind certain unsavoury incidents that had happened between us and there shall be no hesitation in ensuring everybody’s due importance,” the Chief Minister said.
Rivals were waiting for the party to split and if this is allowed “the souls of (AIADMK founder) M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa will not forgive us,” he said and invited all ministers and MLAs to work together and take forward the legacy of MGR and Jayalalithaa and “keep up their pride”.
Later in the day, he and 19 other senior leaders were expelled from the party’s primary membership by Sasikala. Her loyalist Edappady K Palaniswami was elected the Legislature Party Leader.
Tamil Nadu’s School Education Minister K. Pandiarajan, who had gone to meet the legislators supporting AIAMDK General Secretary V.K. Sasikala at the beach resort near here, had to return without success.
Pandiarajan wentto the resort to make necessary arrangements, so that acting Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam could come there and seek the legislators’ support.
But the police did not allow him to proceed further to prevent any untoward incident.
The police also clamped orders prohibiting gathering of any four or more persons in Kuvathoor, around 90 km from here, where the beach resort is located.
Sasikala, who came to the resort on Monday evening, stayed overnight and is present there.
On Tuesday morning, bad news came from Delhi for Sasikala and two of her relatives after the Supreme Court restored the conviction order of the trial court in the disporportionate assets case.
Soon after, the legislators elected Public Works Minister Edapadi K. Palanisamy as the leader of AIADMK’s legislature party.
In the evening, Palanisamy met Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao and submitted the resolution electing him as the leader of the AIADMK legislature party and also staked his claim to form the next government. It is not clear for how many more days the legislators would stay put at the beach resort.
AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala, who was convicted in disproportionate asset case, left Golden Bay Beach resort by 9.40pm on Tuesday for Chennai. She is likely to surrender before a Bangalore court today.
Earlier in the day police took control of resort as soon as the Supreme Court upheld conviction of Sasikala and two others. A majority of police force left around 8pm after they failed to convince the MLAs camping there since February 8 to vacate the resort.
There was power supply disruption in the area leading to speculation that police disconnected the power supply to force the MLAs to leave the resort. Power supply was restored within a few minutes. An AIADMK party man assaulted TOI photographer R Ramesh Shankar, and mediapersons staged a protest.
Earlier, a police team led by inspector general of police (north zone) N Senthamarai Kannan that entered the resort held discussions with Sasikala, ministers and MLAs urging them to vacate the resort in batches. Superintendents of police Mutharasi (Kancheepuram), Vijayakumar (Cuddalore) and P Pakalavan (Vellore) accompanied Senthamarai Kannan while IGP (homeguards) K Periaiah and IGP Varadaraju kept guard in the presence of two teams of striking force outside the resort.
Police sources said a few ministers and MLAs were reluctant to move out and threatened that they would stage a dharna if they were forcibly sent out of the resort. Pro-Sasikala ministers and legislators came in batches and repeatedly told journalists that they had been staying together voluntarily since Wednesday night.
However, they didn’t answer journalists’ queries on several issues including the number of MLAs staying in the resort and charges levelled by Madurai (South) MLA S S Saravanan after escaping from the resort in disguise. They decided to stay in the resort until Governor invites their new legislature party leader Eddapadi K Palanisamy to form the government.
Police arrested six people on charges of illegal entry into the resort while more than a dozen of ‘private guards’ who have been intimidating journalists went missing. The district administration has clamped Section 144 in the areas coming under the jurisdiction of Koovathur police station. TNN
