Chennai: Shrivaaru Venkatachalapathy Palace, in Chennai has got all decked up to host the crucial AIADMK general council meet that is likely to take a call on Sasikala’s ouster from the party post. But trying to disrupt the meeting was Sasikala’s nephew, rebel TTV Dinakaran, erected legal hurdles by filing plaints in Madras High Court and Karnatkaka court through his supporters.

While the Karnataka court gave an interim stay on holding the AIADMK general council meet, the Madras High Court had initially Dinakaran aide P Vetrivel’s plea for barring the meeting as it was not legal.

Dismissing his plea, Mr Justice CV Karthikeyan also imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on Vetrivel for filing a vexatious litigation. The court refused to accept his plea made in his personal capacity and said he could approach the election commission. Vetrivel challenged the single judge bench order in the Madras High Court.

In the meanwhile, preparations were afoot to hold the meeting at Shrivaaru Venkatachalapathy Palace, a marriage hall in the outskirts of the city, where ministers, MLAs, office bearers and cadres of the two factions of the AIADMK that merged into one entity are expected to attend. The meeting has been convened by EPS-OPS combine with an intention of removing Sasikala from the party post to which she was appointed as an interim general secretary.

At an earlier AIADMK MLAs meet itself the party wanted to remove Sasikala but deferred the decision after many MLAs gave a miss to the meeting. But the last week MLAs meeting saw a healthy attendance of 111 MLAs that has emboldened the party and chief minister to convene the meeting tomorrow.

Legal experts were of the view that the AIADMK can ignore the interim stay of the Karnataka court as it is yet to be formally conveyed to the party through post. Also there is the issue of jurisdiction as AIADMK is a regional party as per election commission records and the party does not have a Karnataka Legislative Party.

Fisheries minister D Jayakumar told media persons “tomorrow’s general council meeting will be held as scheduled. “Meanwhile, chief minister Edapaddi Planisami called on speaker P Dhanpal, who has issued a notice to all the 18 MLAs now supporting Dinakaran for an explanation on September 14. They have been asked to explain as to why they went against the part stand of supporting Edapaddi Palanisami government in a letter to governor C Vidyasagar Rao.

All the 18 MLAs are supporting Dinakaran and are now camping in Karnataka. They all have decided not to attend the Tuesday’s AIADMK general council meeting.

Jayakumar said that all MLAs absenting themselves tomorrow will be dealt with by the party high command. It is likely that they may be expelled from the party and disqualified as MLAs, which will bring down the magic number in the assembly to 110 and with 114 MLAs supporting the EPS government, it would sail through any trust vote, if needed.