It’s Aaya Ram Gaya Ram time in Tamil Nadu, especially in the ruling AIADMK. VC Arukutty, a party MlA who was one of the first leaders to express solidarity with O Panneerselvam following his revolt against the party leadership in February last, went back to the Edappady Palaniswamy faction on Sunday, much to the dismay of the OPS faction.
For the last few weeks, Arukutty has been complaining that he has been sidelined by the OPS faction and he was forced to re-join the official faction. Arukutty was present in functions attended by Chief Minister Palaniswamy in the south west regions of Tamil Nadu on Saturday and Sunday.
“It is for the welfare of the constituency , as development projects will come there if I continue to oppose the Government,” said Arukutty while speaking in a meeting held at Koundenpalayam on Sunday justifying his move.
Ramachandran, official spokesperson of the OPS faction told The Pioneer that the move by Arukutty was unexpected. “We did not side-line him at all. In fact, he has been entrusted with the responsibility of organising MGR centenary meetings and functions in the south west regions of the State,” Ramachandran told The Pioneer. He also said that the move by Arukutty would not in any way affect the strength of the OPS faction.
Meanwhile sources in the OPS faction said that efforts were on to bring in a compromise with the two factions as the entire AIADMK leadership was aware of the fact that the split would end up only in the disintegration of the party. “We have put forward only two pre-conditions for the merger of the OPS and the EPS factions from day one and it remains till date. There is no change in our stance,” said the leader.
The OPS faction wants the ouster of the VK Sasikala clan from the party leadership and a thorough probe ordered into the factors leading to the hospitalisation and the subsequent passing away of party supremeo J Jayalalithaa as the pre-conditions for the merger of the factions.
Though the local media is agog with reports of crossing over of more MlAs from the OPS faction, Ramachandran denied such reports. “There are only eleven MlAs with us. All of them are strong supporters of OPS and they would not do anything against the memories of Amma (as Jayalalithaa was known ) and MGR, the party founder,” he said.
Meanwhile the ruling AIADMK faction is caught up in an embarrassing situation due to its repeated failure to give an assurance to the Madras High Court about the dates of holding the local body election which was due in October 2016.