EC rejects TTV Dinakaran's reply on Sasikala's appointment

The Election Commission has refused to accept the reply filed by T T V Dinakaran on behalf of V K Sasikala to a complaint challenging her appointment as AIADMK’s interim general secretary.

It has now asked Sasikala to either sign the response herself or by an authorised signatory who is in the commission’s list of AIADMK office bearers and send it again by March 10.

Earlier on February 17, the EC had issued a notice to Sasikala on a petition filed by O. Panneerselvam loyalist Maitreyan and others challenging her nomination as AIADMK's general secretary.

Dinakaran had defended Sasikala’s elevation on the ground that the general council of the party has the authority to make such an appointment. He claimed that the party’s functioning would have come to a halt after Jayalalithaa’s death if Sasikala had not been appointed.

"Dinakaran is not an office bearer of your party as per the Commission’s record... The reply should either be submitted under your own signature or you may duly authorise somebody to do so on your behalf,” the EC said.