Chennai: In the first political casualty of the rebellion led by O. Panneerselvam, AIADMK’s IT wing ‘Singai’ G Ramachandran was on Wednesday removed from his post after he expressed support to the Chief Minister and resolved to work with him.

Mr Ramachandran, who was handpicked by late J. Jayalalithaa as head of the IT wing that manages the party’s official Twitter handle and publicity campaign online, was replaced with V V R Raj Sathyan, who is currently joint secretary of the IT wing.


Mr Ramachandran has also been removed from the primary membership of the party, AIADMK general secretary V. K. Sasikala said in an announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

He becomes the first leader to be removed from the post for supporting Panneerselvam, though no action has been taken against Rajya Sabha MP V. Maitreyan and former Assembly Speaker P H Pandian, who have openly supported the Chief Minister.

Speaking to reporters, the sacked IT wing secretary G Ramachandran said he has no differences with Ms Sasikala and her family members.

“I have no differences with anyone in AIADMK. Since I felt Mr O Panneerselvam is doing a good job as CM implementing the welfare programmees of our late Amma, I decided to support him,” Mr Ramachandran said. “I will continue to support Mr Panneerselvam,” he said on Wednesday. After raising a banner of revolt on Tuesday, Mr Panneerselvam was removed as AIADMK Treasurer by Ms Sasikala.

OPS supporters wage online battle

After the sacking of O Panneerselvam from the post of AIADMK treasurer and the removal of members of the IT wing of AIADMK for supporting him, Panneerselvam supporters posted phone numbers and contact details of AIADMK MLAs on Twitter, to raise support for him.

On Wednesday, supporters of OPS on Twitter retweeted the contact details several times so that people would contact their MLAs and pressure them to support him.

On Wednesday, head of the IT wing, Singai G Ramachandran, was sacked and replaced by VVR Raj Sathyan. Soon after Hari Prabhakaran, the joint secretary of AIADMK’s IT wing, supporting OPS, was also removed from the wing.

An unverified Twitter account @CMOTamilNadu that had been posting updates on OPS had been gaining traction and followers so much so that AIADMK’s official handle tweeted to users that it is not an official account.