Chennai: Expelled leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) on Monday vowed to reclaim the AIADMK, announcing what he called his “second dharmayudham” (war of honour) with party’s interim general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami (EPS) amidst failure of all unity moves.
Speaking at a meeting in Chennai of district secretaries of his faction, OPS said the candidate put up by EPS is not doing well in the Erode East by-election. “I don’t want to share my opinion on how the campaigning is going on. When votes are counted on (March) 2, everyone will come to know. We will be patient until then,” he said.
OPS said that though his faction withdrew their candidate, they would campaign for the victory of the two-leaf symbol. “But, there is no respect for that,” he said. OPS said that since the Supreme Court has reserved its orders on his case challenging the radical changes in the AIADMK and the by-poll was coming up, he backtracked allowing EPS’ candidate for the sake of the party’s symbol.
OPS faction’s senior leader P H Manoj Pandian read out the resolutions passed during the meeting. The first, he said, is to “reclaim the AIADMK from a dictator”, referring to EPS. “We will reclaim the two-leaf symbol permanently,” Pandian said reading out a resolution. Until now, OPS and his faction wanted the AIADMK to work unitedly, which found no takers from EPS’ side.
The OPS’ faction also passed a resolution to turn around the electoral losses since 2019. The faction also decided to make late J Jayalalithaa as the permanent general secretary of the AIADMK, which EPS and OPS had done in 2017 after the merger of their factions. Last July, the general council of the party abolished the dual posts of OPS as coordinator and EPS as joint coordinator. The council expelled OPS and made EPS the interim general secretary.
OPS refused to address EPS by his name, saying that he had lost regard for him.“Amma (Jayalalithaa) made the party a fortress. After her death we decided that she will be the eternal general secretary. You know the situation after that,” OPS said. “Dharmayudham 2 has started to protect the party.”
OPS’ first dharmayudham was a dramatic turn of events when he stepped down as chief minister and turned against V K Sasikala soon after Jayalalithaa’s death. At that time OPS went and sat on Jayalalithaa’s memorial on the Marina beach in a meditative pose and announced his rebellion against Sasikala who was then backed by EPS.
“They are holding the party with an iron first and the cadre will destroy it,” OPS said on Monday again hoping that “the soul” of Jayalalithaa and party founder M G Ramachandran (MGR) will save the party. “We will create a future where a cadre can become party coordinator, joint-coordinator and chief minister. That is our dharmayudham’s ideology.”
After the Election Commission of India accepted Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde’s claim to the leadership of the Shiv Sena and its bow and arrow symbol going by the test of legislative majority, the EPS-led party which enjoys a majority in the legislative wing of the party is hopeful of securing the ‘two leaves’ symbol. EPS has been busy campaigning for his candidate K S Thennarasu in Erode (east) constituency. Party spokesperson D Jayakumar accused DMK ministers of taking voters on a tour to change them in favour of Congress candidate EVKS Elangovan. “This government is behaving in an undemocratic way,” said Jayakumar.
Madras HC disposes of AIADMK plea on by-poll
Meanwhile, AIADMK’s organising secretary and former law minister C V Shanmugam had moved the Madras high court seeking a direction for the Election Commission to ensure free and fair bypoll alleging that the ruling DMK was bribing voters. But in a setback to them, the high court disposed of their petitions, expressing satisfaction over the measures taken by the authorities.