V Divakaran tosses up politburo' formula

Chennai: Amid the choppy waves rocking the ruling party, Sasikala’s brother V. Divakaran has come up with a ‘formula’ to halt the impending crisis: he wants sister Sasikala and nephew TTV Dinakaran to step down for facilitating the reunion with the OPS group, after which the AIADMK could be run by a seven-member ‘politburo or presidium’. “Under Dhinakaran’s formula, OPS will be the Chief Minister and Edappadi Palanisami will be the deputy CM. Apart from these two, all the prominent castes will be represented in the presidium. We said a firm ‘no’ to it, insisting that OPS should be both the CM and the party general secretary.

The control of the party and the government should vest with one individual to ensure smooth functioning, and that person should be OPS”, said a former minister, who is a prominent member of the OPS think-tank. Divakaran had not been politically active for quite some time and returned to the centre stage when OPS launched his Marina revolt on Feb. 7. He withdrew again to native Thanjavur and with the party under siege after the tax raids and the RK Nagar by-election fiasco, is trying to revive his clout in the AIADMK. He does not enjoy great rapport with TTV, reports say.

“We want OPS to be the CM and we do not mind Edappadi being the deputy CM. And minister Vaithilingam, who has 16 MLAs with him, could be the party treasurer. These three along with party presidium chairman E. Madhusudhanan can form the AIADMK politburo. Everyone knows that OPS is a very democratic and affable leader, so he will take everyone along”, said a senior member of the OPS camp, who has been involved in the consultations for reunion with the Edappadi group.