Fifteen All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam members, including Nainar Nagendran, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday in the presence of BJP President Amit Shah in Delhi, ANI reported.

Earlier in the day, ousted All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran said no one but God could threaten him, The News Minute reported. On Thursday, Speaker P Dhanpal had sent a show-cause notice to 19 MLAs supporting Dinakaran. Dinakaran described the tension within the party as a “war between sacrifice and betrayal”. It was his first reaction to the ongoing political drama since the merger between the O Panneerselvam and Edappadi Palanswami camps of the AIADMK.

Dinakaran said the “real AIADMK cadres” were extending support to him. “Money is not a big thing, they cannot buy MLAs with money,” Dinakaran told reporters. “Those MLAs [his supporters] are not afraid of anyone, they want to teach a lesson to the betrayers who want to evict VK Sasikala from the party.”

The strength of the Dinakaran camp rose to 21 after two more MLAs pledged their support to him over the last two days. He hoped that Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao would soon acknowledge their demand to ask Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Palaniswami to seek a vote of confidence in the Assembly.Reacting to this, Dinakaran said, “No one can threaten me, except God. No one can threaten us.”

The 19 MLAs were taken to a resort in Puducherry soon after they withdrew support for Palaniswami. Besides Dinakaran’s supporters, the Congress and Opposition party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have also asked Palaniswami to prove his majority in the Assembly.