CHENNAI: The turmoil in Tamil Nadu politics continued on Wednesday as rebel caretaker Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and his party general secretary VK Sasikala traded charges and counters, worsening the crisis festering due to the absence of the Governor. With Ch Vidyasagar Rao, the Maharashtra Governor who has been given additional charge of Tamil Nadu, choosing to remain away from Chennai for yet another day, both the challenger and the establishment resorted to sabre-rattling, in varying styles.
In a show of strength, Sasikala convened a meeting of MLAs at the party headquarters on Wednesday morning, where she lashed out at Panneerselvam for betraying the party by cosying up to its arch-rival DMK, a major taint for an average cadre of the party that was launched to take on the parent from which it split. Except a few, most MLAs were present at the meeting, after which they were taken on buses to an undisclosed location.
Panneerselvam did not have the numbers on his side, at least not on Wednesday, a major drawback he sought to counter by appealing to the cadre and public through several interactions and interviews with the press throughout the day. He also reached out to Jaya’s niece Deepa Madhavan, who was the first rallying point for dissidents, though there have been no formal announcements. Panneerselvam has so far managed to attract only five MLAs, but claimed he would prove his majority whenever asked to.
Though the party leaders chose not to question the governor’s delay, there were strategies drawn up to force the issue after the continuing stalemate. One such plan was to parade the MLAs before the President to make Sasikala’s claim a difficult one to turn down. But this was given up after it was informed that the Governor would be in Chennai on Thursday.