AIADMK general secretary and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday expelled former Rajya Sabha MP and retired bureaucrat K. Malaichamy from the party for “anti-party activities.” The action comes a day after Mr. Malaichamy, in an interview to a news channel, opined that Ms. Jayalalithaa and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi were friends and also hinted at the possibility of an alliance between the AIADMK and the BJP.
Ms. Jayalalithaa expelled Mr. Malaichamy from the primary membership of the party for the “anti-party activities that besmirched the name and fame of the AIADMK,” a press release issued here said.
Mr. Malaichamy went against the party principle when he spoke of a “Modi wave” and said that Ms. Jayalalithaa and Mr. Modi were friends, though politically they might differ.
He was drafted into the party by Ms. Jayalalithaa after his retirement from the Indian Administrative Service. Once a favourite of the AIADMK leader, Mr. Malaichamy adorned the position of Home Secretary during his career after which he was made the State Election Commissioner upon retirement. She made him enter the electoral fray on behalf of the party from the Ramanathapuram constituency from where he was returned to the Lok Sabha in 1999.
Sources in the AIADMK said they were hardly surprised at the turn of events for Mr. Malaichamy, who had remained sidelined for a pretty long time. Neither was the former IAS officer drafted for big assignments nor was he co-opted for party positions. Mr. Malaichamy’s remark precisely turned out to be wrong route to get into the leader’s focus again, the sources added.
