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More MPs back OPS
Support grew for Tamil Nadu\'s caretaker Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, locked in a bruising feud with AIADMK supremo V K Sasikala for power, with five more MPs crossing over to his camp.
Chennai: Support grew for Tamil Nadu's caretaker Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, locked in a bruising feud with AIADMK supremo V K Sasikala for power, with five more MPs crossing over to his camp.
Four Lok Sabha MPs --Jaisingh Thiyagaraj Natterjee (Tuticorin), Senguttuvan (Vellore), R P Marutharaja (Perambalur) and S Rajendran (Villupuram) met Panneerselvam at his Greenways residence on Sunday morning and pledged support to him, taking the number of MPs backing him in the fight to 10.
Rajya Sabha MP R Lakshmanan also switched over to the Panneerselvam camp, provoking an embattled Sasikala to sack him as the party's Villupuram (North) district chief.
Amid continued uncertainty over her swearing-in and struggling to keep her flock together as desertion by the MPS went on, Sasikala met AIADMK MLAs housed at a resort on Chennai's outskirts for the second successive day.
Before heading for the resort, Sasikala told journalists outside the Poes Garden residence of her mentor and former Chief Minister, the late J Jayalalithaa, it was "very difficult" to be a woman in politics. Sasikala also displayed a copy of a 'fake letter' allegedly sent by her to Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao threatening to commit suicide if she was not allowed to form the government.
"A fake letter in my name is doing the rounds in social media and a friend brought it to my notice. You (media) should also see it. It is very difficult for a woman to be in politics. Have seen that during Purathchi Thalaivi's (revolutionary leader, a term fondly used by Jayalalithaa's supporters to address her) times also, but she overcame it," Sasikala said.
Meanwhile, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who has been batting for Sasikala to be sworn in as Chief Minister, injected a new twist to the lingering political drama being played out in the state, saying Governor Rao had to make a decision by Monday or a case "can be filed charging abetment of horse trading". However, the BJP's state unit sought to distance itself from Swamy, saying he has taken a "different path".
"I would like to make it clear that it is not the path of Tamil Nadu BJP," the party's state president Tamilisai Sounderrrajan said. Earlier, addressing her party's star campaigners who included actors and singers, Sasikala assured them AIADMK would come out of this crisis with the help of grassroots workers.
"Our party and grassroots level workers are with us. They are the true sense of this movement. Be bold, I am with you," she told them.
