Chennai, Jun 16 (IANS): AIADMK's former interim General Secretary V.K. Sasikala, who does not even have a primary membership of the party, is trying "audio politics" and divide and rule methods to create confusion among the party cadres, senior party leader and spokesman, D. Jayakumar said on Wednesday.
In a statement released here, he, however, asserted that no tactics of Sasikala would work in the AIADMK as it is a cadre-based party with party workers and leaders working in unison.
The former Fisheries Minister said that the cadres of the party are fully vigilant and know the actual intentions of both Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran and knows fully well that how big-time "conspirators" the two are. He also said that Sasikala is leaking audio clippings even after 17 party functionaries were dismissed for having truck with her in a deliberate attempt to create confusion among the cadres, adding that she was trying in vain to take control of the party.
Sasikala had, on a leaked telephonic conversation with a party cadre from Theni district - the home district of Chief Coordinator O. Panneerselvam, said that she did not have had any objections to allowing him to continue as the Chief Minister and that it was he who had resigned arbitrarily from the post.
Jayakumar said that this was a calculated move on the part of Sasikala, and added that the AIADMK cadres are adept to understand such manipulations of the former interim General Secretary.
Sasikala had, in March 2021, openly stated that she would stay away from politics and pray for the return of the "golden rule" of Jayalalithaa. She was stripped of all her posts in 2017 and ever since both Panneerselvam and K. Palaniswami were working as Chief Coordinator and Coordinator of the AIADMK.
In 2018, Dhinakaran floated the AMMK and had, since then, been stating that his aim was to retrieve the AIADMK. Sasikala was lodged in the Bengaluru Central jail for four years since 2017 after being convicted and sentenced in a case related to amassing wealth disproportionate to her known sources of income.
She was released in February 2021 and had reached Tamil Nadu with a cavalcade of 1,000 vehicles to announce her return with a bang but was not welcome in the party and later publicly announced that she was staying away from politics.