A day after Tamil Nadu’s opposition leader and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Tiruchirappalli airport and the duo shared a renewed bonhomie, his former colleague O. Panneerselvam chose to shift stance from his usual affability with the ruling BJP.
The AIADMK Workers Rights Retrieval Committee coordinator and former Tamil Nadu chief minister, popularly known as OPS, on Tuesday condemned the BJP-led Union government for not releasing funds to Tamil Nadu under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) scheme for 2024-25.
OPS attacks BJP for first time
“Citing the non-acceptance by the state government to the Union government’s conditions as the reason for not releasing the funds will not only affect the education of students, but also teachers. This action of the Centre is against the Right to Education Act and federalism,” OPS said in a strongly worded statement. In fact, this is the first time ever since his rebellion against AIADMK’s former interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala, OPS has chosen to oppose the BJP and the Centre.
Once a staunch loyalist of J. Jayalalithaa, OPS had always been in praise of Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. In 2017, it was at the behest of the BJP that OPS was taken back into the party. He was anointed the deputy chief minister then and was given lucrative portfolios including CMDA and Finance in EPS’s regime. OPS openly said this during a public meeting at his home town in Theni, that it was the prime minister who asked him to shake hands with Palaniswami. In 2024, when AIADMK had quit the NDA alliance, OPS contested as an independent from the Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency in the jackfruit symbol only to push his own party to the third position.
'The time has lapsed'
Despite his overtures, AIADMK general secretary EPS who had renewed his party's ties with the BJP and rejoined the NDA, refused to take him back into the party. In a recent television interview, EPS said, “the time has lapsed,” when asked about taking back OPS into the party. However, OPS believed that the BJP will once again find him space in the AIADMK or ensure a political future for him and his supporters.
Incidentally, months before when Amit Shah was in Chennai, OPS expected that he would get an audience with the Union home minister. In the past few months since the AIADMK renewed its ties with the BJP, OPS has never had an opportunity to meet with the BJP’s Delhi high command, which once stood by him. And now when Modi was in Gangaikonda Cholapuram, OPS was eagerly waiting to hear from the PMO about an appointment with the PM. In 2019, when Modi filed his nomination papers in Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, OPS was among those who went there to greet him. And in 2024, on the advice of the BJP, he contested as an independent from Ramanathapuram.
At this juncture OPS’s statement against the BJP has sent out strong signals that he no longer wants to be at the sympathy of Delhi. It was only on Monday, OPS’s advisor and former AIADMK veteran Panrutti S. Ramachandran indicated that OPS and his supporters might join hands with actor and TVK founder Vijay. “When there is no place for him in the alliance, what is the point in continuing there?” Ramachandran asked.