Expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) on Friday said the Supreme Court judgment that allowed Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) to continue as party interim chief is not a setback and asserted that he would go to the people and seek justice.
“No verdict is a setback for us,” OPS told reporters after paying floral tributes to party’s late supremo J Jayalalithaa at the Marina beach on her 75th birth anniversary.
The Supreme Court found no illegality in AIADMK’s general council meeting held on July 11 last year which made EPS the interim general secretary and expelled OPS who had shared power with him in a dual leadership set up.
Warning his rivals of bringing out skeletons out of the AIADMK’s closet, OPS said EPS wanted to capture the party. He compared the scenario to the infamous “resort politics” back in February 2017 when V K Sasikala had holed up legislators including EPS in Koovathur, about 80 km from Chennai. “They are thinking that just like Koovathur, they are clapping people to have a grip over the party,” OPS said. He also said that he will soon meet other ousted leaders such as V K Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dhinkaran.
Answering a question on accusations hurled against him and his followers that they are the ruling DMK’s ‘B’ team, OPS said, “They (EPS camp) are the A to Z team of DMK.Can they accuse us over a single thing?”
At the press conference, OPS was flanked by his supporters and senior leaders Panruti Ramachandran, JCD Prabhakar, and Manoj Panida S Vaithilingam. Refuting speculation of them starting a new party, they asked about the status of the corruption cases filed (after the DMK formed the government in May 2021) against former ministers S P Velumani, P Thangamani and others, and the Kodanad heist cum murder case in which EPS was named by an accused. EPS has refuted the changes.
“There are 1000s of such matters. It will come out one by oneThere are a thousand things, these will come out one after the other,” OPS said. “So far we were quiet to maintain party discipline and to keep it united. We were patient. Today, he is saying Chinnama (Sasikala) and Panneerselvam and TTV will not be taken back. Did he start this party? Cadre and people will tame such a dictator.”
On Friday, EPS and the majority of the party who are with him showed their strength at the AIADMK headquarters. EPS cut a 75-kg cake to mark his predecessor’s age. Cadre raised loud slogans of ‘kazhaga podhu seyalalar’ meaning party’s general secretary. EPS will soon be elected to this top post in the party which had been stalled earlier as the Supreme Court had reserved its verdict which was pronounced on Thursday.
Though EPS has not responded to OPS’ statements, hi supporter and former minister D Jayakumar accused OPS of teaming up with the DMK to go against the AIADMK. “OPS is nobody anymore to cadre and the people,” Jayakumar said. “According to AIADMK’s by-laws we are on the right path. We will only win no matter how many times he goes on an appeal,” he said, adding that their enemies are OPS, Sasikala and Dhinakaran.
Jayalalithaa’s confidante Sasikala’s nephew Dhinakaran, the leader of the breakaway faction Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), has urged his cadre to celebrate her birth anniversary across Tamil Nadu.
Meanwhile, OPS wrote to the Election Commission of India informing about his plans to file a civil suit and urged the EC not to entertain requests for changes in the AIADMK hierarchy and in the party’s bylaws.
“… the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has only adjudicated the issues relating to convening of the General Council as to whether it is properly convened or not and having adjudicated this issue, the Hon ble Supreme Court has rendered the Judgment only prima facie in this regard,” OPS has said in his letter. “However, with regard to the legality and the validity of the resolutions said to have been passed on 11.07.2022 General Council Meeting, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has explicitly held that “In the interest of justice, we leave all the related aspects concerning the said resolutions open to be agitated, but strictly in accordance with law; and all the objections and rebuttals of the contesting parties are also kept open.”
