The incumbent and the former chief minister of Tamil Nadu are camping in Delhi today. The two had separate meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While Edappadi K. Palanisamy discussed about exempting the state from NEET exams, former chief minister O. Panneerselvam represented the state's concern with the prime minister. The political message that comes through these meetings with the Centre is that the AIADMK merger is heading towards a final phase, where OPS will also have a say. In continuation of the high profile meetings, OPS faction has submitted the resolution, passed by EPS and his supporters, against Dhinakaran with the Election Commission of India.
While EPS has been indicating a good news on merger in the last couple of days, the OPS camp's talks create doubts over merger. The twin demands made by OPS—expelling the Sasikala family en masse and probe in to the death of Jayalalithaa—have still not been met. "A merger is impossible until these two demands are met. We want the Sasikala family to be sacked," says K.P. Munusamy, one of the seniors in OPS camp. But despite the reiteration of these two demands, EPS has never spoken on it. This has created doubt among the AIADMK cadres that OPS may not have meant it and that it is being taken as a reason for putting off the merger permanently.
In fact, OPS's refusal to budge on these two demands, say the AIADMK cadres, is only because he cannot compromise being just an MLA and always wanted to be the chief minister. "The media and the public perception is that the resolution against Dhinakaran is a step towards merger and the two camps will come together. But I have lost interest in the party affairs. Even if they come together the party will not stay united for a long time and the BJP will extract its own pound of flesh,” says Sathyendra Bose, an AIADMK member from North Chennai, who hoped for a merger till April.
For cadres like him, EPS and OPS began thinking of a merger because of the growing insurgence within the party, which is flowing down to the grassroot level. “Till our Amma was alive no wave could come into Tamil Nadu. But now OPS and EPS only take advise from Delhi. They have become pawns in the hands of the BJP,” says Bose. For people like Bose, Jayalalithaa was a lion, who was always the protecting wall and never let down the party at any point of time, but now, the fight among the factions has put the image of the party at stake.
It is no doubt that OPS has just 11 MLAs and one of them has already defected to the EPS camp. He is not strong enough with numbers to lead the government and it is no secret that he wants to be the CM again. EPS, though he has 122 MLAs with him, doesn't want to relinquish his CM chair just for the sake of merger. But what drives the two factions together is Dhinakaran, who refuses to give up. His fights and confrontational nature, has made the OPS and EPS look at a likely merger in the near future. "The merger will happen before August 15th,” said Finance Minister D. Jayakumar.
On the other hand, after celebrating the platinum jubilee of its mouthpiece Murasoli, the resurgence of the DMK is apparent. The meeting of VCK's Thol Thirumavalavan with DMK's working president M.K. Stalin and the latter's gesture to accommodate the parties in the DMK fold, has prompted the BJP to push the two AIADMK factions towards a merger and to take it into the NDA fold to keep them under check. Sources say, the BJP, with Prime Minister Modi's direct involvement, had administered a compromise formula, where OPS could be given a senior post in the party and made the deputy chief minister. But it is also rumored that the party will continue to go ahead without a general secretary till the local body polls and the Election Commission intervenes to set up a steering committee to look into the party affairs. In such a case, the two factions, sources say, will come together and withdraw the affidavits submitted in favour of Sasikala and have the Mannargudi family out.
Meanwhile, another rumour of a bait being offered to the OPS faction is also doing the rounds. It is said, seniors like V. Maitreyan in the OPS camp will be offered a cabinet berth in the ruling BJP government in Delhi and seniors like Mafoi K. Pandiarajan and S. Semmalai will be accommodated in the cabinet in Tamil Nadu.
However, the BJP, which has been trying hard to find its foot in Tamil Nadu, will need a well built organisation to fight a full-fledged election which is possible only with the help of a party like AIADMK. It may be noted that the BJP Big Boss Amit Shah is in Chennai on August 22 to reorganise the party structure at every level.
