E-Paper
After Manoj Pandian, several in OPS camp considering joining rival DMK
Pandian, was the third former AIADMK leader, to jump ship to the DMK after the party’s Muslim face Anwar Raajaa and another former MP V Maitreyan who blamed the EPS-leadership for re-joining the BJP alliance in April
Amid the power struggle to unite all factions of the AIADMK, legislator and O Panneerselvam(OPS) loyalist Manoj Pandian moving to arch rival DMK is triggering more former AIADMK members in the OPS camp to cross over ahead of the 2026 assembly elections, people familiar with the development said.
A senior leader in the OPS camp said that given his weakening position and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi Palaniswami’s (EPS) reluctance to take them back, some of them are considering joining the rival party as their only way to survive politically.
Pandian, was the third former AIADMK leader, to jump ship to the DMK after the party’s Muslim face Anwar Raajaa and another former MP V Maitreyan who blamed the EPS-leadership for re-joining the BJP alliance in April.
The DMK describes this migration as cadre coming back to the parent party since AIADMK’s founder MG Ramachandran (MGR) left the DMK to float the party.
“There have been several others in the past who left the AIADMK and either joined the DMK or joined a party in their coalition,” a senior leader in the OPS camp said.
OPS who has recently joined hands with other expelled AIADMK leaders- KA Sengotaiiyan, TTV Dhinakaran and his aunt VK Sasikala has sort of been isolated, people familiar with the matter said.
Pandian has backed OPS since 2017 when he rebelled first against Sasikala and later against EPS. He was expelled from the AIADMK by EPS in 2022 after he decided to back OPS when he was first expelled. Pandian resigned as an MLA elected from Alangulam after joining the DMK on November 4 in the presence of party president and chief minister MK Stalin.
Another MLA, R Vaithilingam and former MLA JCD Prabhakar who had once advised MGR and who were prominent members of the OPS camp have distanced themselves.
“Those of us close to OPS had advised him against joining the BJP but he joined and he abandoned that too,” a second leader in the OPS camp said.
The OPS camp joined the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) before the 2024 parliamentary elections. He withdrew from the NDA after the EPS-led AIADMK re-joined with the BJP earlier this April. Pandian has been slowly withdrawn since. On July 31, OPS quit the NDA hinting at his displeasure with the way the BJP was treating him after the national party reunited with the EPS-led AIADMK. On the day he quit, OPS met Stalin twice leading to speculation of a political re-alignment. First they met briefly during a morning walk which was said to be a chance encounter. But later in the day, OPS met Stalin at his residence but both sides said that the meeting was to enquire on Stalin’s health since he was hospitalised a week before that.
Another expelled leader Dhinakaran’s Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) also joined the NDA last year. OPS and Dhinakaran had joined at a time when the AIADMK had broken away from the BJP in 2023 but the party reunited this April. While OPS, Dhinakaran and Sasikala have been pitching for a united AIADMK, EPS has been steadfastly against it.
The trio are from the Thevar community and the BJP had been banking on their influence with this vote bank dominant in southern Tamil Nadu. Most recently EPS sacked veteran leader Sengottaiyan on October 31 who had been urging him to bring back the expelled leaders. The last straw was after Sengottaiyan, who had been with the party since MGR’s times, joined hands with the expelled trio on October 30, on the 118th birthday anniversary of caste leader Muthuramalinga Thevar.
“There are options to be considered. There is the option of joining actor Vijay’s TVK too. There are going to be quite a few changes in the coming days,” said the first leader in the OPS camp.
