Sasikala's nephew Dhinakaran removes Tamil Nadu CM Palaniswami from Salem district secretary post

Chennai: AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala's nephew TTV Dhinakaran on Sunday removed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami from Salem district secretary post.

The latest development comes after the AIADMK faction led by Dhinakaran on Saturday removed chief government whip S Rajendran from a key party post, two days after the latter sought disqualification of the 19 MLAs owing allegiance to him.

P Muthiayan was appointed in Rajendran's place.

Earlier, the AIADMK faction led by Palaniswami had declared as null and void the appointment of Dhinakaran as the deputy general secretary.

The Dhinakaran-loyalist MLAs had on August 22 Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao seeking removal of Palaniswami as the chief minister.

Dhinakaran on Saturday also replaced AIADMK's district secretaries of Villupuram (South) and Sivaganga.

Villupuram (South) functionary and MLA R Kumaraguru was being replaced by KGP Gnanamoorthy, Dhinakaran announced.

Dhinakaran, who is involved in a tussle for power with Palaniswami, has been reshuffling the party ranks in the past few days. He has removed, among others, five ministers, from party posts and replaced them with his supporters.

Shinakaran claimed that all the removals were done on the orders of Sasikala.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected Sasikala's plea seeking review of its February 14 order restoring her conviction in a disproportionate assets case.

The top court had on February 14 restored the conviction of Sasikala, Sudhakaran and Elavarasi in the disproportionate assets case, with the bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose (since retired) and Justice Roy setting aside a Karnataka High Court order acquitting the three and late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

Setting aside the High Court order, the top court restored the September 27, 2014 judgment of the trial court convicting and sentencing Sasikala and the other two.

Sasikala had been sentenced to four years jail and a fine of Rs 10 crore.

The top court verdict had come on an appeal of the Karnataka government challenging the May 11, 2015 High Court verdict acquitting Jayalalithaa, Sasikala and the other two in a case for amassing disproportionate assets to the tune of Rs 66.65 crore during Jayalalithaa's first term as Chief Minister from 1991 to 1996.