CHENNAI, Feb 12 - Support grew today for Tamil Nadu�s caretaker Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, locked in a bruising feud with AIADMK supremo VK Sasikala for power, with five more MPs crossing over to his camp.
Four Lok Sabha MPs � Jaisingh Thiyagaraj Natterjee (Tuticorin), Senguttuvan (Vellore), R P Marutharaja (Perambalur) and S Rajendran (Villupuram) met Panneerselvam at his Greenways residence this morning and pledged support to him, taking the number of MPs backing him in the fight to 10.
Rajya Sabha MP R Lakshmanan also switched over to the Panneerselvam camp, provoking an embattled Sasikala to sack him as the party�s Villupuram (North) district chief.
Amid continued uncertainty over her swearing-in and struggling to keep her flock together as desertion by the MPs went on, Sasikala met AIADMK MLAs housed at a resort on Chennai�s outskirts for the second successive day.
Before heading for the resort, Sasikala told journalists outside the Poes Garden residence of her mentor and former Chief Minister, the late J Jayalalithaa, it was �very difficult� to be a woman in politics. � PTI
