CHENNAI (TIP): Two days after AIADMK (Amma) announced it would free the party and the government from the influence of the V K Sasikala family, and opened doors to its rival faction for merger talks , the two camps hardened their stand and flung barbs at each other. The central player in the political drama, party deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran, meanwhile, remained out of sight on Thursday.

Dhinakaran loyalists and MLAs Thanga Tamilselvan and P Vetrivel visited chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at the secretariat on Thursday after a brief meeting with Dhinakaran at his Adyar residence in Chennai. Vetrivel later said Dhinakaran had directed them to meet the chief minister and extend their cooperation forsmooth functioning of the government. “Dhinakaran will remain our deputy general secretary,” said Vetrivel.

The O Pannerselvam-led faction dug in its heels, terming the truce call by the EPS faction a “drama” authored by Sasikala, her husband M Natarajan, and brother V Dhivakaran, using Dhinakaran as the ‘pagadaikai’ (dice). It also laid down threeconditions, including withdrawal of an affidavit filed by the Palaniswami group on the appointment of Sasikala as general secretary, officially removing her and Dhinakaran+ from their posts and instituting a CBI investigation into former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s death.

For its part, the EPS camp got several of its leaders to hit back, setting the tone for fiery talks ahead. Jayakumar took on OPS over his remarks that Dhinakaran’s ouster was his “first victory”, saying, “Will he also say that he was the force behind ((US President) Trump’s victory?” Law minister C Ve Shanmugam asked how his party’s affidavit could be withdrawn when it was the OPS camp which moved the EC to challenge the appointment of general secretary and to stake claim for the ‘two leaves’ symbol.