AIADMK is a 'headless body', don’t want to ally with it: TTV

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) is a “headless body” and has been reduced to a “non-functioning” organisation due to “selfish nature” of a few people, T T V Dhinakaran said on Thursday while mounting a full-blown attack on Edappadi K Palaniswami.

Dhinakaran said he would never join EPS and work with him politically and that his comments with regard to 2024 Lok Sabha alliance have been “misunderstood.” He also said the AIADMK was currently in a position that it cannot even be able to provide ‘B’ forms for its candidates if elections are held tomorrow due to “legal issues” that have landed the party in courts.

“Did I ever say I want to join Edappadi K Palaniswami? What I said was all supporters of Amma (Jayalalithaa) should come together to dislodge the DMK. Palaniswami’s comments show he is not a true follower of Amma. Who is Palaniswami to say he will not include me in the alliance? I have no interest in joining his alliance,” Dhinakaran told reporters.

He was responding to Palaniswami’s statement that there was not even “1% chance” of admitting AMMK led by Dhinakaran in the “mega alliance” for 2024 elections.

Dhinakaran, a former AIADMK MP who was re-inducted into the party by his aunt V K Sasikala in 2017, was expelled from the outfit in September that year by Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, who is now open to working with the former. He launched AMMK in 2018 which has tasted successive electoral defeats since the launch.

Dhinakaran also tore into Palaniswami’s style of functioning saying the AIADMK that exists today is “non-functioning” and is like a “body without its head".

“I didn’t want to make strong remarks, but Palaniswami has forced me to do so. The AIADMK has no leadership today and the party cannot issue B forms to its candidates if elections are held tomorrow. The party is suffering due to the selfish attitude of a few. The party’s affairs have now reached the courts because of these few people,” Dhinakaran said.

His comments also come amid criticism that the AIADMK was openly ceding the opposition space to ally BJP, which is proactive both on the ground and on social media.

Dhinakaran has been maintaining that cobbling up a “strong coalition” was the only way to defeat the DMK. He has also announced that his party will contest the 2024 elections in alliance with a national party.