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CHENNAI: Three-time main curate and expelled AIADMK person O Panneerselvam, 75, joined DMK connected Friday morning. DMK is apt to springiness him a spot — perchance Bodinayakkanur successful Theni, which helium won successful 2021 — to contention successful the upcoming assembly election.OPS joined the DMK successful the beingness of main curate M K Stalin astatine Anna Arivalayam, the party’s headquarters.Minister P K Sekarbabu was seen accompanying Panneerselvam successful the aforesaid car, signalling the party’s coordinated move.Sources said OPS, who had been sending feelers to DMK, took the determination aft AIADMK wide caput Edappadi K Palaniswami welcomed AMMK main TTV Dhinakaran, different expelled AIADMK leader, into the NDA.
EPS was steadfast that helium wouldn’t instrumentality backmost OPS.DMK leaders confirmed determination was an speech of messages with OPS earlier his ceremonial induction. A elder DMK person had earlier told TOI that helium was scheduled to articulation connected Friday morning. OPS, who had checked into a edifice connected Radhakrishnan Salai up of the move, had remained unreachable anterior to the announcement.Panneerselvam’s supporters R Vaithilingam and Paul Manoj Pandian had resigned their MLA posts and joined DMK recently.
In August, Panneerselvam withdrew from NDA, citing “insults” from the BJP camp. Four months later, helium called connected Union location curate Amit Shah to convey that helium would not articulation NDA unless the AIADMK factions were unified.On Sunday, Panneerselvam had said Amit Shah told him that the DMK confederation is beardown capable to triumph against a divided AIADMK.OPS had said, “I pleaded with him to bring unneurotic the groups and unify the party. He (Shah) said helium had tried to transportation (EPS) but helium wouldn’t perceive ... Shall I articulation the Sankara mutt?”OPS supporters said the determination was not an casual one. “Some of his kin were not keen connected the move,” said a source.
“But it was the close happening to bash fixed the circumstances. He wants to instrumentality connected Palaniswami,” said different aide. “He tin bash it lone by joining a almighty unit similar DMK.”Late CM Jayalalithaa chose Panneerselvam arsenic the stand-in main curate doubly — successful 2001 and 2014. He became CM again successful 2016 aft Jayalalithaa’s death, but mislaid the station wrong a mates of months. He aboriginal served arsenic lawman CM and associated coordinator of AIADMK, but his differences with Palaniswami grew.
In July 2022, Palaniswami got the enactment bylaws amended, eliminating the dual enactment operation and expelling OPS from the party.As for the spot helium is apt to get, a DMK person said determination are contenders wrong the enactment for the Bodinayakkanur spot and helium whitethorn beryllium fixed different spot successful the region. In the 2024 polls, Panneerselvam contested independently from Ramanathapuram and came second, securing 3.42 lakh votes.
