After all doors were shut in the NDA fold, former Chief Minister and expelled AIADMK leader O. Panneerselvam (OPS) on Friday joined the ruling DMK in the presence of DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.
Party sources said the DMK leadership has assured Assembly election tickets to OPS and a few of his key supporters in and around Theni district to consolidate anti-AIADMK votes ahead of the polls.
Panneerselvam, known as a staunch loyalist of former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, revolted against V.K. Sasikala, who became the party’s general secretary following Jayalalithaa’s death.
Though he later merged his faction with that of Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS), the uneasy power-sharing arrangement within the party collapsed over time. The rivalry between OPS and EPS intensified after the party’s 2021 electoral defeat, and subsequently, OPS and his supporters were expelled from the party at the general council meeting held in 2022.
The party’s general council abolished the dual leadership model and reinstated EPS as the party’s single leader. Sources in the BJP told TNIE that the party did not want to accommodate him as he had lost credibility during talks with BJP leaders.
“We were not ready to accommodate him in the party at any cost. However, we were open to him contesting from the BJP’s share of seats, either through T.T.V. Dhinakaran’s AMMK or on a BJP ticket. During discussions with the BJP leadership in Delhi, he would agree to the deal but would backtrack after returning to Tamil Nadu. He lost his credibility and hence was not accommodated,” a BJP source privy to the developments told TNIE.