Jayalalithaa removes Tuticorin mayor from party posts

Jayalalithaa removes Tuticorin mayor from party posts
Chennai: Chief minister and AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa on Friday removed Tuticorin mayor A P R Antony Grace from the post of the district’s women’s wing joint secretary and as member of the party’s general council. No reason was cited. Jayalalithaa had been cracking down on errant partymen and women in a bid to ensure that the party image was not marred in any way in the run up to the assembly election.The move comes a couple of months after a purge within the party undertaken by Jayalalithaa to remove functionaries, whose misdemeanours might have earned the displeasure of people and cadres. Several functionaries, close to former chief minister and finance minister O Panneerselvam (besides other party heavyweights) had been removed from their posts, especially those in his home turf of Theni district. Sources said Grace had fallen out of the leadership’s favour following reports from local partymen that her son Antony Nicholas Kaviarasu had been running the mayor's office by proxy and had allegedly extorted money from local businessmen claiming he would be fielded as a candidate in Tuticorin for the assembly election. Grace was among those who led a celebratory procession when Jayalalithaa was acquitted by the Karnataka high court in the assets disproportionate case in May 2015. Grace had been fielded in the byelection to the mayoral post in Tuticorin held in September 2014 and had defeated her nearest BJP candidate by a margin of about 85,000 votes.