On Wednesday, AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam appeared resigned to the odds being stacked against him and his supporters, ahead of the June 23 party meeting which is expected to address the sole issue of leadership.
Ahead of the General and Executive Council meetings, which are expected to consider appointing Joint Coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) as the party’s supreme leader amid overwhelming support, Pannerselvam, popularly known as ‘ OPS’, tweeted that ‘Dharma will win again’.
The remark seems to be an indication that OPS has begun to come to terms with the fact that, as of now, rival EPS has
an advantage in the party and that Panneerselvam would do whatever it takes to recover his rightful position in the party.
AIADMK sources indicated that among the options explored by the PAHO camp is the approach of the Election Commission to
the right moment for his intervention. Already they had approached the police to deny permission for the meeting, which was denied.
Petitions have also been filed with a municipal court asking for intervention to maintain the status quo regarding the dual structure (led by OPS and EPS) of the party leadership.
Panneerselvam, expressing anguish over a worker and party supporter attempting to self-immolate, called on cadres not to resort to extreme measures like this. He quoted a popular Tamil phrase, which could be roughly translated as “Dharma may be swallowed up by a cunning scheme, but Dharma will eventually win.”
Several well-known supporters of OPS like Undersecretary KP Munusamy and former Minister K Pandiarajan have moved to the EPS camp, which enjoys overwhelming support, including that of veterans like Dindigul Srinivasan and KA Sengottaiyan. The EPS is the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and the OPS is the Deputy Leader.
The meeting is expected to pass more than a dozen resolutions, and drafts have reportedly been made available to the OPS camp. It is unclear whether any of them refer to the leadership issue or not.
(Only the title and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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