Parithi Ilamvazuthi, former DMK bigwig and AIADMK leader for the past five years, has been expelled from the primary membership of the AIADMK for indulging in anti-party activities (read: for being ‘close’ to Dinakaran).

Along with Ilamvazuthi, quite a few leaders of the party’s South Madras (South) District Unit have also been shown the exi9t door in a decision taken jointly by party’s convener O. Panneerselvam and deputy convener Edapadi K. Palaniswami. A DMK strongman for many years and who held the Egmore Assembly constituency on his own for many years, Parithi Ilamvazuthi was sidelined within the DMK after he lost the 2011 Assembly polls to a DMDK candidate.

Parthi then found solace in AIADMK and formally joined the party in the presence of former chief-minister J. Jayalalithaa. He was given the post of executive committee member of the party. After Jayalalithaa’s demise in December 2016, Parithi aligned himself with OPS first but later aligned with Dinakaran, R.K. Nagar MLA, who had been sacked from the AIADMK along with his aunt Sasikala.

Parithi, however, kept a low profile and refrained from openly supporting Dinakaran since last September when the AIADMK became a unified party with the merger of the factions led by OPS and EPS. It is said that he had been sacked as the party’s high command felt that he was like a ‘cat on the wall’ which might jump to Dinakaran’s camp at any moment. Ilamvazuthi hasn’t yet reacted to his ouster from AIADMK.