In a surprise move, AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa on Monday expelled her close aide V K Sasikala and her husband M Natarajan besides 10 others from the party's primary membership.

The drastic action against Sasikala, who had enjoyed absolute confidence of Jayalalithaa was announced in a brief statement by the AIADMK chief, who also told her partymen not to have any truck with the expelled members.

Sasikala, also an AIADMK executive member, Natarajan and their relatives, including T T V Dinakaran and Jayalalithaa's disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran "are being expelled from all posts, including the party's primary membership," she said.

Others shown the door are V Bhaskaran, S Venkatesh and Ravanan, all of whom were believed to have been calling the shots in the party after it won the April 2011 assembly polls, besides M Ramachandran, Mohan, Kulothungan, Rajarajan and Divakar.

The expulsion comes days ahead of the meeting of the party's decision making bodies, the general council and the executive, on December 30.

The Jayalalithaa-Sasikala saga had been always a talking point in state political circles as the latter is seen with Jayalalithaa in most of her private and public appearances.

Sasikala is one of the accused in the disproportionate case relating to Jayalalithaa, who had appeared before a trial court in Bangalore recently.