CHENNAI, May 22: The 14-member AIADMK Parliamentary Party today split vertically with seven Rajya Sabha MPs casting their lot with expelled AIADMK leader S Thirunavukkarassu.The seven MPs are Rajan Chellappa, Thambi Venkatachalam, N Rajendran, D Masthan, N Thangaraj Pandiyan, S Austin and P Soundararajan.

In a signed statement released at a press conference addressed by them, the MPs endorsed Thirunavukkarassu's demand to convene a meeting of the party's general council -- the highest policy making forum of the AIADMK.

Chellappa said Jayalalitha had totally forgotten the fact that the AIADMK's foundation was the late MGR's popularity among the masses of the state.

Jayalalitha was running the party by projecting herself, which had not only eroded the party's vote bank, but also resulting in the party suffering one of the worst ever poll debacles in its twenty five-year-old political history, he said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.