Police yesterday accused All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader T T V Dinakaran, a nephew of jailed party chief V K Sasikala, of trying to bribe the Election Commission with hundreds of thousands of rupees to reclaim the party’s disputed and now frozen “two leaves” symbol.
A Delhi police officer said they arrested Dinakaran’s close aide Sukesh Chandrasekar from a south Delhi hotel on Sunday with Rs10.3mn that was meant for bribing officials of the election watchdog.
The suspect reportedly told the police that he was Dinakaran’s “middleman” and was asked to pay the money to the EC officials in exchange for the symbol.
“Dinakaran has been booked for criminal conspiracy and corruption after Chandrasekar disclosed his name during the late night police raid at Hyatt hotel where he was staying,” the police officer said.
The officer said the 27-year-old suspect, who is said to own a fleet of luxury cars, confessed he was playing the middleman.
The police raided the hotel following a tip, the officer said. A police team is expected to travel to Chennai to summon Dinakaran, who denied the allegation.
Sources said the police are also investigating whether a former Karnataka bureaucrat, Pawan Raina, who is currently an adviser in the Tamil Nadu government, is an associate of Chandrasekar.
Dinakaran told reporters in Chennai that he didn’t know “anybody by the name Sukesh Chandrasekar” and called it a conspiracy to destroy the AIADMK - divided between two factions after its leader J Jayalalithaa died on December 5 while she was the chief minister.
“Somebody is scheming to destroy the AIADMK. I will meet the allegation legally. If I am summoned by the Delhi police, I will meet it legally,” he said.
Dinakaran is the candidate of the ruling AIADMK faction in the R K Nagar assembly constituency in Chennai.
The April 12 by-election was postponed following allegations of cash distribution to voters on a massive scale by the ruling AIADMK.
Sasikala made Dinakaran the party in charge before she went to prison.
The other faction is led by O Panneerselvam, who was also close to Jayalalithaa and used to stand in for her as chief minister. The two factions have been fighting over ownership of the AIADMK.
The battle reached the Election Commission that gave the two factions new symbols and ordered a freeze over “two leaves” on March 23.
Dinakaran also said he would meet Sasikala in the Bengaluru prison.
Meanwhile, the alleged attempt to bribe the Election Commission by Dinakaran may hasten the process of uniting the two AIADMK factions, said former MP K C Palaniswamy, a Panneerselvam supporter.
“If the election panel decided that Sasikala’s election (as AIADMK general secretary) was not legal, then every other thing in the party will automatically settle down,” Palaniswamy said.
The Delhi police’s case against Dinakaran comes as a major crisis looms in the state government with a section of ministers revolting against him and seeking his resignation as party deputy general secretary.
Should there be an attempt to dethrone him from the key party deputy general secretary’s post, Dinakaran is banking on a few legislators to not only bail him out, but also bring down the Edappadi Palaniswami government.
“Let the ministers revolt against Dinakaran, he enjoys the support of 38 MLAs. The government will not survive,” said a confidante of Dinakaran.
Hectic lobbying has begun in Sasikala’s family - primarily Dinakaran, husband M Natarajan and brother V Divakaran - to poach as many legislators as possible from the ruling party.
It is estimated that about 40 legislators are loyal to Natarajan and Dinakaran as they were responsible for rewarding them with party tickets in the last election.
The Delhi police case also comes soon after IT raids on 50 locations in Tamil Nadu, during which officials seized Rs50mn from the Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar’s associates. The minister is a supporter of Dinakaran.