Ousted AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam (OPS) on Wednesday launched an all-out attack on his former colleague and bete noire Edappadi K Palanisami (EPS). The expelled leader, who repeatedly called for the coming together of all the splinter groups, came down heavily on Palanisami accusing him of betrayal and blocking the chances of his son becoming the union minister.
Signalling an end to all his efforts to bring the splinter groups together, Panneerselvam who maintained silence for over six months spoke his mind during a meeting with his supporters and the cadres loyal to him in Chennai.
The meeting was attended by party veteran Panrutti S. Ramachandran, and his supporters R. Vaithilingam and Manoj Pandian, among others. He said Palanisami betrayed him for four and half years when AIADMK was in power. “But I decided to bear it for the sake of the party’s future,” said Paneerselvam.
Though he did not name EPS during this long speech among his supporters, he accused EPS of trying to “swallow” the AIADMK party which the cadres nurtured for over five decades. Making it clear that any patch-up is impossible, he said “There is not even one per cent chance of unification. If you have the guts, launch your own political party. Come to the streets and tell this to the people. You don’t know where you will land once you say this.”
Accusing EPS of trying to change the party rules laid down by AIADMK’s founder-leader M.G. Ramachandran, OPS said “When MGR was expelled from the DMK in an unfair manner he came out, launched his own party and made a rule that the leader should be elected by the grassroots cadre. This rule should remain unchanged. Today there are efforts to change it,” he charged. He also came down heavily on EPS for removing their former leader J. Jayalalithaa from the post of party general secretary.
Taking a dig at EPS for appointing himself as the interim general secretary of the party, he asked EPS, “who are you? Have you ever met MGR who founded the party for the cadres?” He also accused EPS of creating “so many hurdles” just not to allow him to attend the general council meeting. “As a coordinator, I was not even accorded the slightest respect on that day of the general council.”
Later in the evening, EPS supporter and former minister D. Jayakumar called the OPS supporters' meeting a “private company” meeting. Meanwhile, the accounts submitted by the EPS faction with the Election Commission of India have been accepted by the commission.
However, OPS’s statements and the reply by the EPS camp has made it apparent that there might not be any patch-up between the warring factions in the coming days and the power tussle could only heat up over the days and touch a new high close to the 2024 elections.
Party insiders say that OPS’s rebellion could cost heavily the party’s victory in the elections if the factions do not come together. Sources also say that OPS might even approach the ECI for freezing the ‘two-leaves’ symbol like in 2017. If the symbol is frozen AIADMK though has a solid vote back of around 32 per cent might lose the 2024 election.
Incidentally OPS’s statements on Wednesday indicate that he would not hesitate to take any extreme step close to the elections.
