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Sengottaiyan resigns as MLA, meets Vijay ahead of joining TVK
Expelled AIADMK leader KA Sengottaiyan resigned as MLA and is set to join TVK after being ousted from the party for opposing leadership decisions.
Expelled AIADMK veteran leader KA Sengottaiyan on Wednesday resigned as MLA of Tamil Nadu’s Gobichettipalayam assembly constituency and met Vijay in Chennai later in the day, reportedly to join the TVK, people privy to the development said.
77-year-old Sengottaiyan, a nine-term legislator who has been with the AIADMK since its founding by MG Ramachandran (MGR) in 1972, met Assembly Speaker M Appavu at the Secretariat and submitted his resignation letter, people in the know said.
When asked about him joining TVK on November 27, Sengottaiyan told reporters, “Please wait for a day.” A day ago, Sengottaiyan evaded questions on joining TVK but instead said everyone knows how he was punished.
“I’ve worked in the party for 50 years through its ups and downs. And I’m nobody in the party now. You must know my pain,” Sengottaiyan said. “I can’t speak more now.”
Opposition leader and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) on October 31 sacked former minister Sengottaiyan, a day after he met with the expelled trio OPS, TTV Dhinakaran and his aunt V K Sasikala and pushed for all factions of the AIADMK to unite.
Sengottaiyan hails from the dominant Gounder community in the western region of Tamil Nadu. “Sengottaiyan’s supporters in the AIADMK from Gobichettipalayam (in Erode district) who resigned when he was removed from all party posts are also likely to join along with him,” said a member of TVK.
He is the second legislator in the Tamil Nadu assembly to resign for joining another party months ahead of the assembly elections next year. Recently, expelled AIADMK leader Manoj Pandian, a loyalist of O Panneerselvam (OPS) resigned to join the ruling DMK.
In September, after Sengottaiyan had called for the expelled leaders to be brought back and met Union home minister Amit Shah seeking to merge all factions of the AIADMK, EPS had removed him from all party positions. But he had continued to be a member of the AIADMK.
While subsequently sacking Sengottaiyan, EPS said that he had gone against the party’s policies and principles by meeting the three leaders who he had expelled.
