T.T.V. Dinakaran was arrested in Delhi at midnight on charges of attempting to bribe the Election Commission. Hours after this arrest, Sasikala’s posters were taken down at the AIADMK party headquarters in Chennai.
In the last week Dinakaran, Sasikala’s nephew was accused of trying to bribe the EC in an attempt to buy the AIADMK party symbol of ‘two leaves.’ This symbol was frozen by the EC after the party split into two after the death of J. Jayalalithaa. The party split into two parts AIADMK Amma, led by Sasikala and AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi, led by O. Panneerselvan.
Sasikala, however, was convicted by the Karnataka High Court in a disproportionate properties case. Before going to jail she appointed Edapaddi Palaniswami as the CM of Tamil Nadu and Dinakaran as the Deputy general secretary of AIADMK. Things started changing after Dinakaran was questioned by the police and Palaniswami along with the party bigwigs approached the OPS led AIADMK Puratchi Thalaivi for a merger.
OPS had agreed to the merger only if Sasikala and her kin were evicted from the party. They also said all her posters must be removed from AIADMK office. This was implemented by the party on Tuesday, before midnight.
Sukesh Chandrasekhar, Sasikala’s cousin, and an aide was arrested at the Hyatt hotel in Delhi with Rs. 1.3 crores cash. He confessed to having been sent by Dinakaran to bribe the EC into unfreezing the AIADMK symbol. The Delhi Court registered a case and asked the police why they have not yet arrested Dinakaran, which was promptly carried out on Tuesday before midnight.
