Coorg, Sep 24 (Deccan Chronicle): Denying allegations that his aunt V. K. Sasikala had controlled the management of Jayalalithaa during her treatment at the Apollo Hospital, AIADMK rebel leader TTV Dhinakaran on Friday insisted that Chinnamma herself could see the patient only for a couple of minutes in a day.
"Chinnamma was with Amma from her time of admission on September 22, but from October 1, she could see Amma only for a couple of minutes in a day with the permission of the hospital management. This was because the hospital had clamped restrictions on visitors due to fear of infection", Dhinakaran told reporters at the luxury resort near here.
He was reacting to repeated allegations from AIADMK leaders, including Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and more recently minister Dindigul Srinivasan, saying that Sasikala had dominated the management of Jayalalithaa's treatment at Apollo and that she prevented others from seeing the Chief Minister to ensure secrecy in the treatment and related procedures. CM Palaniswami had even announced the decision to set up a commission headed by retired high court judge to probe Jayalalithaa's treatment.
Asked to comment on the latest barrage from Dindigul Srinivasan, Dhinakaran said that Srinivasan would like through his teeth "just to save his ministerial position". At the MGR centenary rally in Madurai on Friday the minister had profusely apologised to the public for 'lying' that Amma was doing fine eating idly and chutni and that those lies were necessary to save the party and the government.
Dindigul Srinivasan and the other leaders, who have now turned belligerent, were the "same people who begged Chinnamma for one-and-a-half hours at Poes Garden to accept the general council resolution electing her as party general secretary". And they all rode autorickshaws to campaign for him at the (since deferred) RK Nagar by-election, Dhinakaran said.
He said he would soon convene the "real general council" of the Amma faction and streamline the party affairs. The general council convened by the rivals (EPS-OPS) "is not valid", he insisted, claiming that the Election Commission continued to send all its communications to Chinnamma acknowledging her status as the party general secretary.