Amidst reports that one of his ardent supporters and former Minister V. Senthil Balaji is set to switch camps and join the DMK, Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran on Thursday wrote to his party workers that the organisation would not be shaken by “withering leaves”.
In a three-page letter to his party workers, Mr. Dhinakaran, without naming anyone, said: “Who is to worry over the moving away of gold-plated ones, when we have pure gold like you [party workers]? It was only natural for ‘weed’ to grow along with paddy and time would help us identify the weed.”
He added that withering leaves would not affect the banyan tree.
‘Selfish move’
“If a few individuals or a small group believe that the party will be crippled just because they leave the party for their selfishness, it seems like a cat is closing its eyes and thinking the whole world is dark,” Mr. Dhinakaran stated in the letter that did not mention Mr. Balaji, but referred to recent instances when party functionaries left the party.
Mr. Dhinakaran also criticised the party in-charge in Karur district for having vouched for another party functionary, who ran a liquor shop discreetly.
He observed that it was natural for party workers to leave the party, only to rejoin it after apologising, even when former leaders C.N. Annadurai, M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa were at the helm [in the AIADMK].
It would only do good to the party, if people who didn’t subscribe to Jayalalithaa’s policy of serving the people left, the R.K. Nagar MLA said.
He called upon his party workers to stand united to defeat betrayal.
There was no place in the party for thoughts that ran contrary to the objective, he said.
“None can touch or tease the party. If they do, it will be equivalent to touching a live wire. Let us retrieve the party from traitors to realise Amma’s dream of a good government,” he added.
Showing support
Supporters of Mr. Balaji left for Chennai on Thursday to join the DMK along with him.
Divided into small groups, they left the town by cars, vans and buses from different areas including Karur, Aravakurichi, K. Paramathi and Kulithalai. According to sources, about 40 vehicles had been arranged for their travel to Chennai.
They will accompany Mr. Balaji to Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters, where he is expected to join the DMK on Friday, in the presence of party president M.K. Stalin.
Before embarking on their journey to Chennai, some of the AMMK functionaries of Karur district removed their party flags from their cars. They also removed the pictures of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, V.K. Sasikala and AMMK deputy general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran from the dashboards of cars.
Meanwhile, a district office-bearer of the DMK, on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Balaji was expected to join the party on Friday. “We have been told that Mr. Balaji will join the DMK tomorrow. We do not see any problem in working with him in Karur,” the office bearer told The Hindu .
