Face-off behind battle for AIADMK
CHENNAI: It was March 8, and at the AIADMK’s Chennai headquarters stood a beaming O Panneerselvam and Edapaddi Palaniswami. The party was celebrating women’s day, and both OPS and EPS, as they are popularly known, showed little sign of animosity, feeding cake to former ministers Gokula Indira and B Valarmathi.
Yet, despite the practised smiles, there was tension.
For close to a week, the two had not been on speaking terms. Panneerselvam’s native Theni district unit had passed a resolution to take back “all those who had left the party”, an obvious reference to the third pole of power in the AIADMK, VK Sasikala. An angry EPS camp retaliated, saying they would push for him to be sole leader. Only the day before the event did the two engineer a fragile peace.
For five-and-a-half years since the death of the AIADMK’s matriarch, J Jayalalithaa, in 2016, this fractious relationship has been at the centre of the party’s politics — two pre-eminent leaders fighting and making up, but eventually staying together to keep Sasikala out.
In that period, much has happened in the state’s politics — the DMK swept to power, the AIADMK has allied with the Bharatiya Janata Party and Sasikala is making her presence felt again — but the jousting has continued.
Yet, this time feels different. On June 23, in a fraught general council meeting of the AIADMK, EPS’ supporters pushed for the party to move to a unitary leadership under him. The night before, OPS had gone to the Madras high court, asking for status quo. The court ordered that besides 23 resolutions on the agenda agreed by the leadership previously, meaning both OPS and EPS, no other resolution and amendment to the party’s laws could be made.
OPS, despite the loud protests against him at the meeting, had lived to see another day. On Monday, however, EPS’ loyalists said no resolutions being passed meant that even the one that governed the dual leadership arrangement had come to an end, and called for a meeting on July 11.
The genesis of EPS, OPS
The 68-year-old Palaniswami began his political career from
Edappadi in Salem district, joining the AIADMK in 1974. From a family of farmers, Palaniswami grew up in Siluvampalayam, and in his younger years would sell jaggery at the Chithode market in Erode.
He won the assembly elections from Edapaddi in the years 1989, 1991, 2011 and 2016. In 2011, he was made state highways minister, and was seen as a strong administrator. During his time, his reputation at home grew, with the village receiving its first government arts and sciences college in 2014.
On December 5, 2016, seven months after AIADMK swept to power under her leadership, winning the assembly elections with 136 of 234 seats, Jayalalithaa died after a prolonged illness. As Tamil Nadu mourned, it was O Panneerselvam, till then the finance minister, who took oath as chief minister for the third time.
Twice before, he stepped into a vacuum left by Jayalalithaa, in 2001 and 2014, when she was jailed in a land scam and a disproportionate assets cases, respectively.
In February 2017 though, Panneerselvam was pushed to resign, with Sasikala waiting in the wings. Two clear factions emerged, one that backed OPS, and the other that backed Sasikala. One of the leaders of the Sasikala faction was Paliniswami.
When Sasikala’s own chief ministerial ambitions were cut short after she was convicted in a disproportionate assets case that February, she handpicked EPS to become chief minister.
Then she went to jail and everything changed.
The OPS and EPS factions merged, and removed Sasikala in September 2017, cancelling her appointment as interim general secretary, and that of her nephew TTV Dhinakaran as deputy general secretary, a case which is still
being fought in a city court.
The party amended the by-laws to create new posts for OPS as coordinator and EPS as joint coordinator, giving birth to a so-called dual leadership. All powers vested with the post of the general secretary went to these two new posts and the party made Jayalalithaa their “eternal general secretary”.
On paper, the relationship was meant to be one of equals. Both their signatures were required for all party decisions. EPS was chief minister; OPS was his deputy. In the party, OPS was coordinator, and EPS the joint coordinator.
But being chief minister brings an undeniable heft, and EPS consolidated his public perception, both within the party and in Tamil Nadu. With Sasikala at the helm, the party had been dominated by the Thevars, a caste which OPS belongs to as well. But under EPS, the Gounders, strong in western Tamil Nadu, began to gain prominence.
The early days of the EPS regime did face criticism of being subservient to the BJP, which it had allied with. But when Covid-19 hit in March 2020, EPS was seen as a worthy administrator, steering the state with a sense of calm. The party may have lost in the 2021 assembly polls, but EPS has grown in Tamil Nadu’s estimation.
Through the twists and turns, EPS has kept his silence, as opposed to the much more voluble OPS. “His silence is his special quality because he shows his strength through his actions,” an EPS loyalist said.
“Have you ever seen EPS backtrack? It’s always OPS who says one thing and then makes a U-turn. OPS was brought in during Amma’s absence. He performed what was expected of him. That was enough at that time. But after her death, he does not command that respect on his own,” a former minister and another EPS supporter said, declining to be named.
OPS — eternal number two
The 71-year-old OPS, the firstborn son of a farmer, joined the AIADMK in 1973. His political future changed in 1996, when he was elected chairman of the Periyakulam municipal council, and he grew when he became close to Sasikala’s nephew Dhinakaran, who became Lok Sabha MP from Periyakulam in 1999.
He went on to win the Periyakulam and Bodinayakanur assembly seats, both in Theni district, five times. He was a minister in various AIADMK governments, and in 2006, was made leader of the opposition. While OPS’ son P Ravindranath is a Lok Sabha MP from Theni, his brother O Raja was also part of the AIADMK, but was removed from the party after he met the exiled Sasikala recently.
In the six months he was in power in 2001, Panneerselvam kept Jayalalithaa’s picture on the table, and never sat in the CM’s chair. It was typical of a man who was seen as obedient, calm and non-confrontational — the perfect number two. In 2014, when he took Jayalalithaa’s place again, he sobbed as he took oath.
In 2021, there were hectic negotiations between the EPS and OPS factions on who would be the chief ministerial candidate, and eventually the latter gave in, announcing himself that EPS would be the AIADMK-led NDA’s chief minister if they came to power.
The DMK swept to victory, but EPS saved face. In western Tamil Nadu, where he is from, the AIADMK won 33 of 50 seats. In southern Tamil Nadu, where Panneerselvam is from, the AIADMK only won 18 of 58. There were tensions between the two, but it became clear that OPS would remain number two, and become deputy leader of opposition, while EPS would lead the party as the leader of the opposition.
OPS supporters, however, said he has always acted with dignity. They point to the June 23 general council meeting, when unruly cadre raised slogans against OPS and threw a bottle at him. OPS stood his ground, smiling calmly with his hands on his hips.
“You saw how he behaved. Is this how people treat such a dignified leader? Why didn’t EPS ask the cadre to calm down?” asked JCD Prabhakar, an OPS supporter.