TTV Dhinakaran targets EPS; predicts AIADMK's fall amid TVK rise

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], November 6 : AMMK General Secretary TTV Dhinakaran has launched a sharp attack on AIADMK leader Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS), predicting a political shake-up with the emergence of actor Vijay's TVK (Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam) party.
Predicting the changing electoral landscape, Dhinakaran asserted that the AIADMK alliance could slip to third place after the entry of Vijay's TVK.
TVK is a one-year-old party, but because of his cinema popularity, he is very popular. I don't know what percentage he will get in the election. But the perception is that it will be a fight between the DMK alliance and the TVK alliance. He has to form a good alliance, then it will be a very tough election. Normally, DMK vs AIADMK will be the election situation, but this time, because of Palaniswami's failure and his selfish, arrogant nature, he has lost that. Surely, he will go to third place," he said.
"Condition of AIADMK is very bad, it is in ICU; it may go to CCU also. Palaniswami is the B team of DMK. That is why he has fought against the BJP in the 2024 elections, knowing that he will not win. He helped DMK win," he added.
On the political front, Dhinakaran said AIADMK was facing internal dissent under Edappadi K. Palaniswami's leadership.
"Many AIADMK officials are leaving due to dissatisfaction. Palaniswami is more interested in holding the general secretary post than serving the party," he said.
Linking Palaniswami to the controversial Kodanad estate case, Dhinakaran claimed that intelligence records on ministers and party functionaries from the late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's tenure were stored at Poes Garden, not Kodanadu.
"Dr Venkatesh and I destroyed those records on the instructions of my aunt, Sasikala. Some falsely claim they were at Kodanad and are using that to threaten Palaniswami," Dhinakaran said, adding that he was in Delhi when the Kodanadu incident occurred.
He alleged that after his expulsion from the AIADMK, Palaniswami's camp feared he might "spill the beans," and was now trying to implicate him.
"I won't rest until I've brought him down. I'll always be a thorn in Edappadi Palaniswami's side," Dhinakaran declared.
The case pertains to the Kodanad Estate owned jointly by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and her close aide V.K. Sasikala. In April 2017, when Edappadi K. Palaniswami was the Chief Minister, a burglary was reported in the estate. In the course of the burglary, the accused had hacked watchman Om Bahadur to death.
Another watchman had sustained grievous injuries. Days later, the former driver of Jayalalitha, C. Kanagaraj, who was the prime accused, died in a road accident. Another accused, K.V. Sayan, escaped narrowly from a similar road accident. A CCTV operator at the Estate also died by suicide.