Rebel AIADMK Leaders Demand Reinstatement of Sasikala and Dhinakaran

Rebel AIADMK leaders S P Velumani and Natham R Vishwanathan issued a joint letter on Sunday accusing party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami of taking unilateral decisions that cost the party crucial alliance opportunities and led to successive election defeats in Chennai.

The two rebel leaders demanded that former AIADMK leaders V K Sasikala and T T V Dhinakaran, alongside 400 recently sacked general council and executive committee members, be immediately reinstated. They alleged that Palaniswami violated party bylaws by executing arbitrary removals to prevent alternative views and enforce his personal decisions. The letter warned that the party needs to be strengthened for the local body elections likely to take place within six months.

In the letter, Velumani and Viswanathan detailed past electoral missteps, claiming that during the 2021 Assembly elections, Palaniswami rejected an alliance proposal with AMMK general secretary T T V Dhinakaran. They noted that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had pushed for the alliance and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had agreed to it, but Palaniswami's refusal resulted in AIADMK losing 42 constituencies. They added that in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Palaniswami refused an alliance with the BJP and delayed negotiations with the PMK, leaving candidates in third place and helping the DMK-Congress alliance win all 40 seats.

Addressing the 2026 assembly elections, the rebel leaders stated that Palaniswami missed alliance opportunities with TVK, DMDK, and Puthiya Tamilagam. They also accused him of attempting to strike a deal with the DMK after the 2026 polls, noting that 25 of AIADMK's 47 MLAs were forced to oppose the move and maintain an anti-DMK position in line with the ideology of M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa.

The letter follows a recent meeting at the Secretariat where Velumani, along with rebel leaders C Ve Shanmugam and K P Anbazhagan, met State Water Resources Minister N Anand. Though removed from party posts for backing the TVK government in a May 13 confidence vote, the rebel leaders refused to accept new positions subsequently offered to them. Urging a "forget and forgive" approach, the duo asked Palaniswami to reinstate long-standing functionaries.