Legislators of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam are scheduled to meet on Sunday, amid speculation that party General Secretary VK Sasikala will be urged to take over as Tamil Nadu chief minister. The conjecture follows Sasikala’s move to remove former chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s adviser Sheela Balakrishnan as well as two other key aides and secretaries at the Chief Minister’s Office from their posts.

“MLAs will meet on Sunday at 1.30 pm. The agenda will be known then,” a senior AIADMK functionary told Business Standard, while another senior party leader accused the media of spreading false news of Sasikala taking charge of the Tamil Nadu government.

Besides the removal of Balakrishnan, who had been credited with running the state government while Jayalalithaa was in hospital last year, 15 influential members of the AIADMK were appointed organising secretaries of the party. According to reports, a number of officials close to Jayalalithaa have either been removed or resigned from their positions.

Meanwhile, Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Working President MK Stalin has criticised the developments, saying people of Tamil Nadu had not voted for anyone from Jayalalithaa’s “household” to be chief minister, PTI reported. “The government, in its present form, is clearly one that does not have the explicit legitimacy of having been elected by the people,” he said.

Sasikala, fondly called Chinnamma, was also a longtime aide of Jayalalithaa’s, though her meteoric rise to the top of the party has raised many questions. The 62-year-old took over as the AIADMK chief on December 30. She has the support of Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai and several other senior party leaders to take the reins of the Tamil Nadu government.