Chennai, Jun 14 (IANS): The AIADMK meeting held at the party headquarters here expelled 17 leaders including party spokesman V Pugazhendi for having contacted former interim general secretary VK Sasikala. Former Minister M Anandan and former Member of Parliament Chinnaswamy were among the other senior leaders who were expelled from the party.

The meeting also passed a resolution against Sasikala, castigating her for "reaching out" to certain party leaders. The resolution also accused her of trying to capture the party and staging a drama by speaking to certain leaders and then selectively leaking parts of the conversations.

Sasikala had tried to enter Tamil Nadu politics with a bang after she was released from Bangalore Central prison after serving four years' imprisonment in a case related to disproportionate assets.

She had arrived in Tamil Nadu on February 7, 2021, in a convoy of 1000 vehicles from Bengaluru and had received a huge reception along the way taking a full day for a 350 km drive - generally covered in 6 to 7 hours.

After a few days of dabbling in state politics, Sasikala suddenly announced that she was withdrawing from active politics much to the surprise of political observers and party sympathizers.

However after the assembly election results came and AIADMK lost the polls, Sasikala started resuming her meddling in the party and selectively leaked her telephonic conversations with several senior, middle and lower-level leaders and cadres of the AIADMK across the state. She has publicly announced through these chats that she was very much in the reckoning for active politics.

AIAMDK leaders Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam had openly denounced her statements and had strongly warned party leaders and cadres that if there was any truck with her they would be expelled from the party.