AIADMK to call meeting of general council

Chennai, Aug 28 (IANS) The merged factions of the AIADMK on Monday decided to call a meeting of the party's general council and also on retrieval of the party's mouthpiece Namadhu MGR and television channel Jaya TV, said a senior leader.

Speaking to IANS on condition of anonymity, the AIADMK leader said that all the legislators supporting the government, numbering over 100, were present at the meeting.

He said the executive committee appointed by late Chief Minister and General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa will be the executive committee of the merged factions.

According to him, this is the first meeting of the party after the merger - one faction led by O. Panneerselvam and the other by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami. Panneerselvam was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister after the merger.

The meeting was attended by Palaniswami, Panneerselvam, ministers, legislators, Members of Parliament and other office bearers.

The 19 legislators belonging to the faction led by T.T.V. Dinakaran, who have been ferried to a resort in Puducherry to prevent poaching, did not attend the meeting.

Ever since he was sidelined by the faction led by Chief Minister Palaniswami, Dinakaran has been trying to establish his supremacy within the party as its "Deputy General Secretary" appointed by V.K. Sasikala before she was sent to jail.

Reacting to the resolutions, Nanjil Sampath, who is of the Dinakaran faction, said Namadhu MGR and Jaya TV are private property and cannot be taken away.