Apparently bolstered by two more MLAs joining him, sidelined AIADMK leader T T V Dhinakaran today said his camp is confident that Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao will take a "good decision" on representation by his legislators seeking Chief Minister K Palaniswami's ouster.
"I will work with them (his loyalist MLAs)," he said while describing the governor as a "legal expert".
Noting that his aim was to safeguard the party, he said the group was hopeful that Rao would "take a good decision".
"Justice", for which his loyalists had taken up cudgels against the incumbent regime led by Palaniswami, "will win", he told reporters in Chennai.
Dhinakaran asserted that his loyalist MLAs were staying in Puducherry only to facilitate that.
On Speaker P Dhanapal's notice to his loyalists, Dhinakaran, whose support among ruling MLAs has gone up to 21, said, "We are bound only by truth and God and this is a war between sacrifice and betrayal. None except God can intimidate us."
He said it would not be true if there are any claims that his loyalist MLAs have gone to Puducherry out of fear.
"Nineteen of them have gone there with a passion of sacrifice; to safeguard the party and the whole of India is watching the situation," he said.
"They (19 of his loyalist MLAs) are now in Puducherry with the confidence that Governor Rao would expeditiously fulfil their representation," he said and added that "money" cannot buy his loyalists.
"Only to bring a realisation that the party can be led only by the general secretary, they are there (in Puducherry) and not due to fear of somebody," the AIADMK deputy general secretary said.
AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala is serving a prison term at a Bengaluru jail following her conviction in the disproportionate assets case.
Dhinakaran quipped that he could take just one question as his "throat has not cleared yet" and that doctors had advised him not to talk much for about two to three days.
Adorning sacred beads worn by devotees who visit the holy shrine of Sabarimala in Kerala, he said he would be visiting the temple.
Speaking to reporters at Tirupur near Coimbatore, where he had gone to attend the marriage of a party cadre, he said it was unacceptable to cadres when Palaniswami's camp said that they would oust Sasikala, who had made them ministers and Palaniswami as the chief minister.
He flayed the Palaniswami camp for joining hands with rebel leader O Panneerselvam, who was "responsible" for the party's "Two Leaves' symbol being frozen and had called the government "corrupt".
To a question on the total number of MLAs supporting him, he said, "so far you have seen 21 MLAs openly supporting us."
Noting that there "are many more," supporting him like "sleeper cells," which he had said before, Dhinakaran said the only idea of such "sleeper cell MLAs" was to protect the party and "they will come one by one and you are all going to see this".
"We have started the operation and whatever steps are needed to protect the party, be it surgery or anything else will be done," he said.
Meanwhile, Dhinakaran's confidant Thangatamilselvan told reporters in Puducherry that if the chief minister was not replaced, they would meet President Ram Nath Kovind in this regard.
"We want to strengthen the party and Palaniswami does not have that capability. He does not have the administrative acumen too. If he is not replaced in keeping with our demand we will meet the President in two days and we are planning for that," he said.
To a query on the notice from the Speaker, he claimed "this (notice) is not legally valid and will not bind us and they cannot disqualify us."
This was being done only to "intimidate" MLAs owing allegiance to Dhinakaran, he added.
Last night AIADMK MLA from Vriddhachalam, V T Kalaiselvan had met Dhinakaran and extended support to him, taking the number of rebel MLAs to 21.
Earlier, Aranthangi MLA E Rathinasabapathy had also reportedly expressed his support for Dhinakaran.
The state has witnessed a political crisis ever since the factions led by Palaniswami and former chief minister Panneerselvam merged on Monday last.
In the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, the AIADMK has 134 MLAs. There is no one representing the RK Nagar constituency in the House, which late AIADMK supremo and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa had represented.
The DMK has 89 seats, Congress eight and IUML one.
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