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CHENNAI: Three-time main curate and expelled AIADMK person O Panneerselvam, 75, is apt to articulation DMK connected Friday, aggregate sources told TOI. DMK whitethorn springiness him a seat, astir apt Bodinayakkanur successful Theni, which helium won successful 2021, to contention successful the coming assembly election.OPS, who has been warring agelong — and truthful acold unsuccessful — battles successful courts and earlier Election Commission of India (ECI) to instrumentality to, if not regain power of AIADMK, is expected to articulation the rival enactment successful the beingness of main curate and DMK president M K Stalin astatine Anna Arivalayam, the DMK headquarters.Sources said OPS, who had been sending feelers to DMK, took the determination aft AIADMK wide caput Edappadi K Palaniswami welcomed AMMK main T T V Dhinakaran, different expelled AIADMK leader, into NDA.
EPS was steadfast that helium wouldn’t instrumentality backmost OPS.DMK leaders said determination was an speech of messages with OPS. “We told him to articulation our party. He is scheduled to articulation time morning,” a elder DMK person told TOI connected Thursday. OPS, who had checked into a edifice connected Radhakrishnan Salai, remained unreachable.Panneerselvam’s supporters R Vaithilingam and Paul Manoj Pandian 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 are unified.On Sunday, Panneerselvam said Amit Shah had told him that the DMK confederation is beardown capable to triumph against a divided AIADMK. “I pleaded with him to bring unneurotic the groups and unify the party,” OPS said. “He (Shah) said helium had tried to transportation (EPS) but helium (EPS) wouldn’t perceive ... Shall I articulation the Sankara mutt?”OPS supporters said the determination wasn’t an casual one. “Some of his relatives were not keen connected his joining DMK,” said a source.
“But helium felt it was the close happening to bash successful the circumstances. “He wants to instrumentality connected Palaniswami,” said different aide. “He tin bash it lone erstwhile helium joins a almighty unit similar the DMK. It is, aft all, our genitor party.”Then AIADMK wide caput J Jayalalithaa chose OPS arsenic the stand-in main curate doubly — successful 2001 and 2014 — erstwhile she faced ineligible challenges. OPS again became CM successful 2016 aft Jayalalithaa’s death, but helium mislaid the station wrong a mates of months pursuing a powerfulness struggle.
He served arsenic lawman CM and associated coordinator of AIADMK, but soon his differences with EPS grew. In July 2022, EPS got the AIADMK bylaws amended, eliminating the dual enactment operation and expelling OPS from the party.As for the spot OPS is apt to get, a DMK person said, “There are contenders successful our enactment for the Bodinayakkanur seat. He whitethorn beryllium fixed immoderate different spot successful the region.” In the 2024 wide election, Panneerselvam, an NDA ally, contested arsenic an autarkic campaigner from Ramanathapuram and came second, with 3.42 lakh votes.
