AIADMK expels 117 office bearers

The ruling AIADMK today continued its disciplinary action against office-bearers, with top leaders O Panneerselvam and K Palaniswami sacking over 100 of them for bringing "disrepute" to the party. The two leaders announced expelling 117 members belonging to the party's Sivaganga district and its subunits, including two former MLAs, KK Umadevan and Cholan CT Palanichamy.

The members were being expelled from AIADMK as they went against party principles and "brought disrepute" to it, Panneerselvam, AIADMK coordinator, and Palaniswami, its co-coordinator, said in a joint statement.

They asked their party workers not to have any truck with those expelled. Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, who merged the factions led by them in August 2017, had last month warned of action against those who go against the party, following its loss in the December 21 RK Nagar assembly bypoll, won by sidelined party leader TTV Dhinakaran.

They had earlier too expelled a number of functionaries while stripping the party posts of some of the key aides of Dhinakaran.

On Saturday, the two leaders had sacked as many as 144 office-bearers of Tuticorin district.