OPS is DMK's B team, spreading lies about Jaya's death: AIADMK

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam after end of a meditation in front of late J Jayalalithaa's burial site at the Marina Beach in Chennai on Tuesday. On Sunday, he tendered his resignation from the post paving the way for AIADMK General Secretary V K Sasikala to become Chief Minister. PTI Photo by R Senthil Kumar(PTI2_8_2017_000001B)

The AIADMK today made a scathing attack on rebel leader O Panneerselvam, dubbing him as 'the B team of DMK' and accusing him of spreading "a blatant lie" about mystery behind late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's death.

Calling Panneerselvam a 'great actor,' AIADMK Deputy General Secretary T T V Dinakaran said he was spreading the lie in "fear" that his political career was in its twilight years.

"Great actor Panneerselvam has exposed through his activities that he is the B team of DMK. Panneerselvam is trying to gain mileage by raising the defamatory bogey of a mystery in the death of Amma (Jayalalithaa)," he alleged.

Dinakaran's sharp attack came a day after Panneerselvam's camp staged a day-long state-wide fast to seek a judicial inquiry or a CBI probe into the "mystery and suspicions" surrounding the death of Jayalalithaa.

Addressing the participants in the fast here yesterday, Panneerselvam had hit out at AIADMK chief V K Sasikala and her family, saying "our fight will continue till a judicial inquiry or a CBI probe is ordered" into Jayalalithaa's death.

In a statement here, Dinakaran said Panneerselvam had made "Goebbels philosophy his ideal... repeatedly telling a blatant lie that there was mystery behind the death of Amma believing that repetition will make it true."

Dinakaran, appointed to the party post by Sasikala, his aunt, last month after her conviction in an assets case, cited hospital reports to maintain that there was no suspicion or mystery behind Jayalalithaa's demise.

"It is for sure that Panneerselvam will lose as he is indulging in treachery and sin," he claimed.

Praising "Chinamma" (Sasikala) for her "sacrifices" for the party, Dinakaran dismissed Panneerselvam' assertion that the party and the government had gone into the control of Sasikala who had announced in 2012 that she had no political ambitions.

"Pannerselvam is harping on the single line that Sasikala gave in writing that she will not come to politics," he said adding it was party cadres who persuaded Sasikala to become both the AIADMK general secretary and to take over as the chief minister and people were aware of this.

"People know that only after such persuasion she took a decision (to become General Secretary) and save the party from the treachery of Panneerselvam," he said indicating that the party was aware of his plans much before he openly revolted.