AIADMK MLAs likely to urge Sasikala to take over as CM at meet

General Secretary V K Sasikala preparing to remove O Panneerselvam from Chief Minister's post and take charge? Speculations are rife in Tamil Nadu that Sasikala could take over the command soon. A decision in this regard is expected to be taken in the crucial AIADMK meeting scheduled to be held on Sunday (February 5).

The speculations have been fuelled by the untimely shunting out of several bureaucrats considered close to O Panneerselvam. Among others, former bureaucrat Sheela Balakrishnan, who was advisor to Jayalalithaa, has also resigned, reportedly because she was miffed over being ignored by the new dispensation.

Among others who were asked to resign are C S Rama Mohan Rao, CM's Secretaries K N Venkataraman and Ramalingam. Sasikala's supporters argue that Sasikala had been Jayalalithaa or Amma's "aide, sister, friend and confidante" for 30 years. A senior party functionary requesting anonymity said: "Go back in history and make your own inference if Amma's loyalists and people will accept her (Sasikala).

" He recalled Jayalalithaa expelling Sasikala twice from the party, once in 1996 after the AIADMK's electoral drubbing and in 2011, months after the party wrested power again from Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Such factors had cast a shadow on her as a potential choice to lead the party, he said.