Not long ago, O Panneerselvam was next only to the all-powerful J Jayalalithaa in the AIADMK as he stood by for her as Chief Minister twice and he was the natural choice to succeed the charismatic leader after her death in 2016.
But his political stocks plummeted in February 2017 when he couldn’t muster enough support to attain the CM’s chair following his rebellion against V K Sasikala, which is believed to have been orchestrated by the BJP. It was then OPS lost to Edappadi K Palaniswami, then a political lightweight and junior to him in the party hierarchy, for the first time.
And on Thursday, OPS had to accept the Supreme Court verdict validating Palaniswami’s appointment as interim general secretary by the July 11 General Council and his expulsion from the AIADMK. The once no. 2 of the 50-year-old party has no chance of being taken into the AIADMK albeit for now, with Palaniswami firmly shutting the doors on him.
Over-dependence on the BJP, failing to assert his authority within the party and in the government as deputy chief minister from 2017 to 2021 and resorting to a legal fight rather than slugging it out politically with Palaniswami are some of the factors that isolated OPS.
Political analysts say OPS is left with limited options politically with AIADMK unlikely to take him back. He might side with Sasikala, but she herself hasn’t been able to rally the party behind her after her release from prison in February 2021.
They told DH that OPS will now appeal to the BJP to rehabilitate him politically considering his “loyalty” to the top leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
Prof Ramu Manivannan, who taught politics at the University of Madras, told DH that OPS’ relevance, after Jayalalithaa’s death, has always been more to do with proximity to the BJP and its leadership. “He has been part of deinstitutionalizing the AIADMK at the behest of the BJP. With his exit done and dusted, the efforts to deinstitutionalize AIADMK will come to an end,” Prof Manivannan added.
Though he was the AIADMK coordinator, placed a notch above in the party hierarchy than Palaniswami, Panneerselvam willingly ceded much space to the former for about five years from 2017. He came across as “indecisive”, “weak”, and “confused” when it came to dealing with Sasikala and her nephew T T V Dhinakaran.
OPS, after Jayalalithaa’s death, failed to win over the AIADMK functionaries who stood by Palaniswami despite the party registering successive defeats in elections. He was also accused of being “soft” towards the BJP and often knocked at the doors of the saffron party’s central leadership seeking resolution of AIADMK’s internal matters.
His supporters deserted one by one and when EPS struck unannounced in June that he favours a singular leadership, OPS was cornered and isolated. He lost more of his men to EPS in the past few months.
Even as he publicly accused Sasikala of conspiring against Jayalalithaa, OPS had a private meeting with her nephew, T T V Dhinakaran and stayed in touch with the family -- he always gave EPS the room to suspect that he could convert any day and turn a supporter of Sasikala or her family.
The only time he asserted his authority was when he put his foot down and demanded one of the two Rajya Sabha seats that the party could win. That rare assertion sealed his fate at a time OPS believed the “dual leadership” arrangement won’t be disturbed. He was caught “off the guard” when supporters of EPS raised the leadership issue in a party meeting on June 14 and the rest is history.