Sasikala's brother floats new outfit

The rift in the extended family of V K Sasikala, the jailed aide of former Tamil Nadu chief minister, late J Jayalalithaa, today spilled over with her brother V Dhivakaran floating a new outfit here.

Dhivakaran inaugurated the office of the "Amma Ani" here and said plans were afoot to open an office in Chennai also, even as he made it clear that he had nothing to do with his nephew T T V Dhinakaran's recently launched Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK).

"Amma Ani" roughly translates into the "Amma faction" or "Amma team" and is named after Jayalalithaa, who was fondly addressed as "Amma" (mother) by her supporters.

Dhivakaran and Dhinakaran were recently engaged in a war of words, even as it was believed that the two had strained ties for long.

Speaking to reporters here, Dhivakaran said today's effort was more like "giving a new lease of life to Amma Ani".

The erstwhile AIADMK faction, led by Dhinakaran, following the rebellion by now Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, was known as the AIADMK (Amma).

Dhinakaran had contested and won the RK Nagar bypoll as the AIADMK (Amma) candidate, while the faction led by Panneerselvam, the AIADMK (Purathchi Thalaivi Amma), had fielded E Madhusudhanan.

Dhinakaran was later sidelined in the party by a section of the state cabinet, led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami.

The two factions led by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam also later merged even as it won the battle for the party's "Two Leaves" symbol at the Election Commission.

Meanwhile, Dhinakaran sought to make light of his uncle's move, saying the latter was driven by "anger and frustration".

"He is speaking out of anger and frustration. I don't want to waste my time (by responding to his move)," he said when reporters asked about Dhivakaran's new outfit.