Nobody can capture party, AIADMK united: OPS

AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam on Wednesday finally broke his silence on former party leader V Sasikala’s move to reclaim the party and said “nobody can capture’’ the party, adding that the dual leadership set-up with co-coordinator Edappadi Palaniswami is working successfully

AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam on Wednesday finally broke his silence on former party leader V Sasikala’s move to reclaim the party and said “nobody can capture’’ the party, adding that the dual leadership set-up with co-coordinator Edappadi Palaniswami is working successfully. Panneerselvam was talking to reporters after the AIADMK conducted a state-wide protest on Wednesday against the DMK for not implementing its election promises, such as abolishing NEET and cutting fuel prices.

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This assertion comes just a day after Panneerselvam and Palaniswami returned from New Delhi, where they held discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and with Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday. Tamil Nadu’s political scenario has been abuzz over what had transpired at the meetings.

Multiple leaders from the AIADMK and BJP, who are unrelated to each other, have confirmed to HT that the BJP has delivered a message to the AIADMK’s dual leadership “to not rock the boat” and continue the status quo. Sasikala was not discussed, they said.

Even before the duo left for the capital, BJP’s new Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai met with Panneerselvam and Palaniswami separately in their residences in Chennai. “He had conveyed to them that the BJP wants the alliance to continue for the local body polls and wants the AIADMK to be together to defeat the DMK,” a senior BJP leader said. “In Delhi, they have got an assurance on this from the party leadership.”

She recently visited the former party’s presidium chairman E Madhusudhanan in a city hospital, even though he had rebelled against her during the several factions that arose following J Jayalalithaa’s death in 2016. Palaniswami, who was in the hospital during the same time, left in a huff.

“AIADMK in the past four-and-a-half years has successfully put in place a system that the party affairs are run without the dominance of an individual or a particular family,” Panneerselvam said on Wednesday. “The system that we have created is democratic, and cadre is happy with the current set-up.” The BJP’s direction and Panneerselvam’s clarification is significant as the tension between him and Palaniswami has become public after their electoral loss in the assembly elections. Panneerselvam was said to be softening his stance towards Sasikala’s return. And as their rift deepened, it offered a space for Sasikala to position herself as the saviour of the party she once manoeuvred from behind the scenes when Jayalalithaa was alive.

“We don’t want to pressurise them about Sasikala. That’s their wish,” the BJP leader said. “The damage is already done. They didn’t listen to us before the elections. The results could have been different if we had roped in Dhinakaran, who split our vote bank.” Dhinakaran Tuesday reiterated that AMMK would continue its founding mission along with his aunt to “retrieve the AIADMK from detractors”.

A senior AIADMK leader said that they had discussed the recent raids against their former transport minister M R Vijayabhaskar. It has made the principal opposition jittery as it is being seen as DMK’s beginning of a crackdown given their election promise to establish a special court and try cases against top AIADMK ministers. “Sasikala has no traction no matter what she has tried to do. There was nothing to discuss,” he said.

Their meeting with Modi-Shah and the protest on Wednesday across 4500 places in the state has given a boost to the cadre, said another AIADMK leader not wishing to be named. “They (BJP) have told us that we could continue to function the way we have been so far.”