Chosen by Jaya, chucked by EPS, 3-time CM OPS to join DMK today

Chosen by Jaya, chucked by EPS, 3-time CM OPS to join DMK today | page 25

Chennai: Three-time chief minister and expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam, 75, is likely to join DMK on Friday, multiple sources told TOI. DMK may give him a seat, probably Bodinayakkanur in Theni, which he won in 2021, to contest in the coming assembly election.

OPS, who has been fighting long - and so far unsuccessful - battles in courts and before Election Commission of India (ECI) to return to, if not regain control of AIADMK, is expected to join the rival party in the presence of chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin at Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters.




Sources said OPS, who had been sending feelers to DMK, took the decision after AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami welcomed AMMK chief T T V Dhinakaran, another expelled AIADMK leader, into NDA. EPS was firm that he wouldn't take back OPS.

DMK leaders said there was an exchange of messages with OPS. "We told him to join our party. He is scheduled to join tomorrow morning," a senior DMK leader told TOI on Thursday. OPS, who had checked into a hotel on Radhakrishnan Salai, remained unreachable.

Panneerselvam's supporters R Vaithilingam and Paul Manoj Pandian resigned their MLA posts and joined DMK recently. In Aug, Panneerselvam withdrew from NDA, citing "insults" from the BJP camp. Four months later, he called on Union home minister Amit Shah to convey that he would not join NDA unless the AIADMK factions are unified.

On Sunday, Panneerselvam said Amit Shah had told him that the DMK alliance is strong enough to win against a divided AIADMK. 'OPS wants to take on EPS' | page 9

OPS said, "I pleaded with him to bring together the groups and unify the party. He (Shah) said he had tried to persuade (EPS) but he wouldn't listen ... Shall I join the Sankara mutt?"

OPS supporters said the decision wasn't an easy one. "Some of his kin were not keen on the move," said a source. "But it was the right thing to do given the circumstances. He wants to take on Palaniswami," said another aide. "He can do it only by joining a powerful force like DMK."

Late CM Jayalalithaa chose Panneerselvam as the stand-in chief minister twice-in 2001 and 2014. He became CM again in 2016 after Jayalalithaa's death, but lost the post within a couple of months. He served as deputy CM and joint coordinator of AIADMK, but soon his differences with Palaniswami grew. In July 2022, Palaniswami got the party bylaws amended, eliminating the dual leadership structure and expelling OPS from the party.

As for the seat OPS is likely to get, a DMK leader said, "There are contenders in our party for the Bodinayakkanur seat. He may be given another seat in the region." In the 2024 polls, Panneerselvam contested independently from Ramanathapuram and came second, with 3.42 lakh votes.