One family should not hold sway over party affairs: BJP on AIADMK

As the merger of two factions of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (AIADMK) hit a roadblock after former chief minister O. Panneerslevam demanded the ouster of V.K. Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V Dinakaran from the party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday opined that 'one family' should not hold sway over the affairs as the continuance of such functioning would hinder the democratic process of the party.

"The BJP has always believed that one family controlling the party is not going to deepen the democratic process. So it will not help this kind of functioning in Tamil Nadu... There is an erosion of trust among the people, restoring the trust is of paramount importance," BJP national general-secretary Muralidhar Rao told ANI.

Rao further said that the Tamil Nadu government should also strive to clear doubts over the medical treatment given to chief minister J. Jayalalithaa and her subsequent death.

Hours after All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader and state Finance Minister D. Jayakumar announced that V.K. Sasikala and her nephew T.T.V. Dinakaran were decided to be 'delinked' from the party, several MLAs and Dinakaran supporters rallied behind him and denounced the former's statement.

"Former chief minister O. Panneerselvam, while going to Madurai, had said that he was ready for the merger without any conditions, which was acceptable to us. But when he imposed the condition today, we decided not to consider this. We will never accept this condition. Because it was T.T.V. Dinakaran, who gave a new direction to the AIADMK," party leader Nanzhil Sampath said here.

This came a day after Panneerselvam had put forth a condition that merger between the two factions would take place only if Sasikala and Dinakaran were ousted from the party.

Hinting that more leaders would join the Dinakaran camp, Sampath said, "In the coming two days, the AIADMK will emerge strongly under the leadership of Dinakaran. All party cadres, members and support Dinakaran. All the splitters would join Dinakaran.