OPS statement on Sasikala a deliberate shocker for CM

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam’s innocuous statement on Sasikala’s return to the AIADMK was no Freudian slip. A lot of thought may have gone into the eyebrow-raising statement made by the Deputy CM. Grapevine has it that Panneerselvam had stated it as a reaction to a shocker from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. If information trickling out of the AIADMK headquarters was something to go by, the Deputy Chief Minister was ‘spurned’ by the CM when he had discussed his son O P Raveendranath Kumar’s, the lone AIADMK MP in the Lok Sabha, possible inclusion in the Union Ministry before the ensuing winter session of the Parliament. EPS was learnt to have advised OPS to make some compromises in his position in the government if they were to lobby with the BJP to elevate his son to cabinet rank. A startled OPS had wound up the discussion with the CM instantly and stormed out of the discussion in which the CM had justified the proposition by arguing that the compromise on OPS’s part was essential to convince other party leaders. It was only after the disturbing encounter that OPS had consulted his confidants and made the surprise statement about jailed Sasikala’s return to the party, ostensibly, to disturb the peace of EPS. Even before he had recovered from the shock, OPS has been dealt another blow by EPS who has now kept a close watch on the transaction of all departments held by the Deputy Chief Minister.