In what has become the latest evidence of the internal party dispute in the Tamil Nadu ruling ADMK ahead of the assembly polls, a former ADMK Minister has been expelled from the party for his anti-party activities and bringing disrepute to the ADMK.  

ADMK is going to face the elections with the unprecedented fashion of dual leadership and contesting in the polls in the BJP alliance. Recently, the state ruling party has announced the candidates of the party in which it had ignored the tickets to three sitting ministers and legislators. Through finalizing the candidates, the ADMK leadership had sparked a furor and internal disputes within the party as some of the legislators had dissented against the party leadership for not providing them a ticket to contest in the polls. 

Sitting ADMK MLA of Sattur Rajavarman had expressed his disappointment against the ADMK leadership for not offering him a ticket and joined Dhinakarana's AMMK and got the ticket to contest from Sattur. In line with that, former ADMK Minister and sitting Perundurai MLA Thoppu Venkatachalam had now decided to contest independently in the polls as he was denied an ADMK ticket. 

He had expressed his dissatisfaction over the party for not allotting him a ticket in the 2021 assembly polls. He had held talks with the ADMK leadership to get the ticket to contest in the Perundurai constituency. As he hadn't received any response from the party leadership, he had filed a nomination to contest as an independent candidate in Perundurai.

As an independent candidate, Venkatachalam had decided to work to defeat the ADMK candidate. Days after he filed the nomination to contest independently, the ADMK leadership had on Friday expelled him from the party. In a statement, ADMK leaders Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam said that Thoppu Venkatachalam was expelled from all positions and the primary membership of the party under the grounds of anti-party activities.

The leaders also said Venkatachalam had violated party rules and brought disrepute to the ADMK. The decision of expelling Venkatachalam has come a day after the party had ousted MLA Chandrasekaran for dissenting against it. According to reports, ADMK had on Thursday expelled Senthamangalam MLA Chandrasekaran for dissenting against the party for not offering the ticket and decided to contest the polls independently. 

Thoppu Venkatachalam was a two-time MLA of Perundurai constituency in Erode district. He had served as the minister in Jayalalithaa's cabinet and was one of the growing leaders in the Kongu belt, the western part of the state where the ADMK has a stronghold. Tamil Nadu will go to the single-phase poll on April 6 and the votes will be counted on May 2, during which the results will be announced.