CHENNAI: With former chief minister O Panneerselvam formally giving up his long-pitched unification drive within the AIADMK and vowing to “teach a lesson” to party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, efforts to bring back leaders who drifted away from the party have effectively collapsed.
It marked a shift from legal contestation to claim his rights in the AIADMK to open political confrontation ahead of the 2026 Assembly election since Panneerselvam is keen on joining hands with a strong political force to make his outfit’s presence felt, while pursuing his present goal of teaching a fitting lesson to Palaniswami.
KA Sengottaiyan was another leader who recently sounded the bugle for reviving the unification effort, and Panneerselvam, TTV Dhinakaran and V Pugazhendi, who is also working for bringing back those who left the party again to the AIADMK, supported him vehemently. However, Sengottaiyan gave up his efforts within a few months and joined the TVK.
While TTV Dhinakaran has his own political party, VK Sasikala has been claiming to unify the AIADMK, but her fight continues only in the court.
The leadership tussle between OPS and EPS resurfaced after the AIADMK’s defeat in the 2021 Assembly polls. Although the party initially continued with a dual leadership arrangement — coordinator and joint coordinator — factional differences soon hardened. On July 11, 2022, a special meeting of the AIADMK general council (GC) abolished the dual leadership and elected EPS as interim general secretary.
The GC also expelled Panneerselvam and three of his supporters. Following this, Panneerselvam moved the court, saying what had happened was violative of the party bylaws.
Later, he also questioned the election of Palaniswami as the general secretary of the party, saying the coordinator and joint coordinator posts are valid till December 2026.
When asked what would happen to the cases filed by OPS before the Madras High Court and before the ECI since he has given up his unification drive, A Subburathinam, a staunch supporter of Panneerselvam, said, “We will continue our fight before the court and the ECI since we have not merged with any other political party. Only when we do that, we lose our claim for retrieving the AIADMK. In fact, we have named our party as AIADM Cadres Rights Retrieval Kazhagam and not otherwise. Our alliance with some party will not weaken our resolve to retrieve our rights in the AIADMK, and the legal fight will go on.”