Coimbatore: AIADMK functionaries have put up posters in the rural parts of the district welcoming the ousted party leader V K Sasikala after her release from the prison.
Similar posters had earlier surfaced in Trichy, Tirunelveli and Theni. Now, posters have come up in Annur town in Coimbatore and Villupuram welcoming Sasikala.
Annur south union women’s wing secretary R Sakunthala and former district panchayat councillor C Rangasamy, who put up the posters welcoming Sasikala as ‘Kazhaga Pothu Seyalalar (permanent general secretary) Thyaga Thaiavi Chinnamma’ across Annur, defended their act stating Sasikala was indeed an ‘embodiment of sacrifice.’ “She has been with Amma (Jaya) through ups and downs for 30 years,” they said.
On calling her the permanent general secretary of the AIADMK, Sakunthala said she had expressed the wish of several cadres that Sasikala should lead the party.
The AIADMK men, however, tore down the posters that were stuck at Annur bus stand, Ellapalayam and other places.
In Villupuram, J Ragupathy, town secretary of MGR Ilaignar Ani, had stuck posters welcoming Sasikala, addressing her as general secretary of the AIADMK.
Law minister C Ve Shanmugam downplayed the posters. “Ragupathy is not the representative of AIADMK cadres,” he told reporters stating AIADMK cadres do not want Sasikala in the party. Shanmugam said there was no need to give significance to the posters. “Even I can stick hundreds of posters, against Sasikala.”
While the party has been sacking functionaries who are putting up the posters, they keep coming up raising suspicion if it was an effort by a section of the party functionaries to put pressure on the party high command to accommodate Sasikala in the AIADMK.