AIADMK should dissolve Assembly, call for elections: Karthi Chidambaram on Sasikala's elevation

Being sceptical about the elevation of Sasikala Natrajan from Party General Secretary to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Congress leader Karthi Chidambaram on Tuesday said even if the decision is legally correct, it is morally wrong.

"While the AIADMK legislature party has a legal right to elect a leader, I think they are morally wrong. The present AIADMK government, in my opinion does not have the mandate of people," Chidambaram told ANI here.

He went on to say that since the mandate was given to late former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in the 2016 Assembly elections, the morally correct thing to do would be dissolving the assembly and a call for general election.

"If AIADMK dissolves the assembly and calls for general elections, wherein the present general secretary is projected as the Chief Minister and the party gets a majority, I have no issues but this move to foist on Tamil Nadu as a leader is unacceptable on many counts",Citing three reasons for considering the move morally incorrect, the Congress leader said that till date the present General Secretary of AIADMK has not spoken on any issues and there are no track records of her voicing on public issues

Second being there are some serious cases pending against her and the immediate family and the third being issues of conflict of interest.

Further pointing out the fact that a potential chief minister is involved in significant commercial transactions with the government, Karthi said that this is a big issue.

The name of 62-year-old Sasikala was proposed by Chief Minister O Panneerselvam at a meeting of party MLAs at the party headquarters for holding the post of Chief Minister, to which majority of MLA and MPs agreed.

Ever since Jayalalithaa's death, there has been a clamour that Sasikala should follow the earlier practice of both the party General Secretary and the Chief Minister's post being vested with the same person.

A PIL was moved in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking to restrain AIADMK leader V K Sasikala from being sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister on Tuesday on the ground that the apex court was likely to pronounce within a week the judgment in a corruption case in which she and late CM J Jayalalithaa were accused.

The PIL was filed by Chennai resident Senthil Kumar, general secretary of NGO Satta Panchayat Iyakkam, hours after the apex court indicated it could deliver its judgment on the appeals challenging the acquittal of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala in a 19-year-old disproportionate assets case.