CHENNAI: Hinting at the possibility of joining hands with the DMK, former chief minister O Panneerselvam on Friday said that the incumbent DMK government has a good chance of being voted back to power due to its achievements in the last five years.
After the concluding session of the 16th Assembly, Panneerselvam, who quit the NDA recently, called on Chief Minister MK Stalin in his chamber and greeted him for completing the term successfully. When asked by reporters later as to whether he intended to join the DMK, Panneerselvam simply said, “be patient”.
Panneerselvam’s statement comes months after his supporters — Manoj Pandian, JCD Prabhakar, R Vaithilingam, A Subburathinam and many others — deserted him, citing his delay in taking a decision on the alliance issue. Veteran politician Panruti S Ramachandran, who was with the OPS camp till recently, had launched his own political party also citing Panneerselvam’s indecisiveness.
Whether Panneerselvam will formally join DMK or have electoral alliance with it to get a few seats is not clear as his legal fight to lay claims to the AIADMK is still on.
OPS’s support may help DMK in south TN
Responding to a query on remarks made by P Ayyappan, Usilampatti legislator and his lone supporter in the Assembly, who had said that the DMK government would continue in power with the blessings of MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, Panneerselvam said Ayyappan has “echoed the people’s sentiments”. To a question if he endorsed his supporter’s view, the former CM said, “the DMK has a chance to win the 2026 Assembly election and form the government for the second time.”
Panneerselvam, who was earlier involved in a power tussle with AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, was expelled from the AIADMK. He is seen as a prominent Mukkulathor face and his endorsement of the ruling party may strengthen the DMK’s electoral prospects in the south.
Meanwhile, DMK deputy spokesperson A Subburathinam, who was a staunch supporter of Panneerselvam before joining the DMK recently, welcomed the remarks and expressed his wish that OPS should join the DMK soon.
Questioned about OPS’s hesitation to declare his support for the DMK, Subburathinam said, “It is clear that Panneerselvam has decided to align with the DMK, and that is why he said the people of TN have decided to elect the DMK again.”
A senior leader who was with Panneerselvam till recently called OPS’s decision as belated. “He should have joined the DMK or aligned with that party when many functionaries of the ADMK Cadres Rights Retrieval Committee advised him to do so. There was a chance of him getting an honourable number of constituencies from the DMK at that time, but now he has no other option except to support the DMK,” he said. Another functionary said, “The question of whether OPS will join DMK is immaterial. The moment he praised the DMK government and predicted its return to power, it became a blot on his political career since the AIADMK made him the CM of the state thrice.”