Miffed over being denied a ticket to contest in the upcoming Assembly polls on April 6, sitting MLA of the ruling AIADMK from Panruti Assembly constituency Satya Panneerselvam and her husband have announced their decision to quit politics and public life. They distributed pamphlets claiming to have quit politics.
AIADMK sources said that Ms. Satya has been upset since the party released its list of candidates to contest the Assembly polls. She had begun election-related work in the constituency six months ago hoping that she would be renominated for the seat for the second time. But the party high command announced former MLA Sorathur Rajendran as its nominee for Panruti.
In the pamphlet circulated to their supporters, Mr. Panneerselvam, former Municipal Chairman of Panruti Muncipality claimed that he and his wife Satya had remained loyal foot soldiers of the party from the period of party founder MGR. Paying rich tributes to party supremo and late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, he said that it was Amma (Jayalalithaa) who rewarded him with the post of chairman of Panruti municipality from 2011-16 and also provided an opportunity to his wife to serve as the constituency MLA from 2016 to 2021.
The legislator and her husband also thanked the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam and former MP Arunmozhi Devan in the pamphlet but omitted the name of sitting Minister M.C. Sampath in the list.
A party worker believed that the omission of Mr. Sampath’s name was proof of the internal politics and squabbles prevailing in the party. This is not a good prospect for the party particularly when elections are two weeks away, he said.
Despite repeated attempts, Ms. Satya could not be reached for comment.
Already, the internal feud in the party has spilled out in the open with the replacement of Kurunjipadi nominee R. Palanisamy with former Minister Selvi Ramajayam.
Suspecting that Mr. Sampath was responsible for this, supporters of Mr. Palanisamy ransacked the party office in Cuddalore on Sunday night.
