Tamil Nadu chief-minister Edapadi K. Palaniswami has opined that AIADMK dissident and independent candidate Dinakaran’s victory in the just-concluded R.K. Nagar by-polls would have ‘no’ effect on the AIADMK Government.

“It’s not a proper victory but a victory which has been achieved by cheating people with all kinds of fraudulent activities,” the chief-minister said while taking part in a meeting held at the party’s Royapettah Headquarters in Chennai. The highest policy-making body of the ruling AIADMK met yesterday to take stock of situation in the aftermath of the defeat in the R.K. Nagar by-polls.

Many office-bearers of the party who are reportedly close to Dinakaran (directly or indirectly) were evicted from the party after which chief-minister met the press along with deputy chief-minister O. Panneerselvam.  “DMK’s working president Stalin and Dinakaran hatched a conspiracy to defeat the AIADMK in the by-polls.  We would take strict action against betrayers within the party,” the chief-minister said.

“AIADMK doesn’t stand to lose anything by the defeat in the by-polls which was manipulated beyond the limit by Dinakaran using money and other things,” he observed. To another query as to whether the defeat reflected the Government’s performance, the chief-minister replied in the negative and asked would anyone write off the DMK because it lost its caution deposit in R.K. Nagar.

“Success and failures are two sides of the coin of life; I don’t want to go into the details as the whole media is aware of what Dinakaran did to taste victory in R.K. Nagar,” the chief-minister concluded.