Once Jayalalithaa’s trusted lieutenant, OPS joins DMK
Three-time AIADMK Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who held top party positions before his expulsion in 2022, on Friday joined the DMK in the presence of its president and Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin in what is seen as a shot in the arm for the ruling party ahead of the elections.
A trusted confidant of late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, Ottakara Thevar Panneerselvam, popularly known as OPS, joined arch rival DMK, after unsuccessfully struggling for over three years to rejoin his parent outfit.
“Are you not embarrassed,” asked the AIADMK, highlighting OPS’s meteoric rise in the party and underscored that he had even been the official signing authority to endorse the candidature of party nominees in elections.
Seventy-five-year-old OPS, a prominent face of the influential Mukkulathor community, who had functioned as AIADMK Treasurer and also held the erstwhile top position of party coordinator, joined the DMK along with his son, P Ravindhranath Kumar and supporters.
OPS joining the DMK is expected to strengthen the ruling party more in southern districts where the Mukkulathor community wields solid electoral influence.
Incidentally, OPS, an MLA, is the last man in his camp to move out while his prominent supporters, including V Vaithilingam and PH Manoj Pandian, had already joined the DMK. Others, including JCD Prabhakar, joined the TVK. Rajya Sabha MP R Dharmar is the only noted OPS supporter to accept the leadership of AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami.
The legal battles OPS had initiated over his expulsion, targeting the AIADMK brass led by Palaniswami (EPS), did not succeed. EPS had, over the recent years, often labelled OPS as a ‘betrayer.’ EPS had often alleged that OPS supported the DMK by his actions and the former always questioned the latter’s loyalty to the AIADMK.
Since last month, following a meeting between OPS and Minister PK Sekar Babu, speculation has been rife that the ex-CM will join the DMK. Adding to the speculations, OPS supporter P Ayyappan days ago expressed confidence in the TN Assembly that the Stalin-led Government would be re-elected.
OPS himself said on February 20 that the DMK has the edge and it would win the Assembly polls. Today, Sekar Babu, who was himself an ex-AIADMK leader, accompanied OPS to DMK headquarters ‘Anna Arivalayam’.
A party worker, soon after the AIADMK’s founding in 1972, he had been the chief minister thrice (2001-02, 2014-15 and 2016-17) and had held plum portfolios including finance, revenue and public works in his long stint in the Governments led by the AIADMK.
A 5-time MLA, the first public office he held was that of Periyakulam Municipality chairman in Theni district in southern Tamil Nadu in 1996.
Beginning his life as a tea shop owner in Theni, he became the chief minister for the first time at the age of 40 years in 2001, when he became MLA for the first time, after Jayalalithaa had to step down as CM in the TANSI land deal case. Subsequently, he became the CM in 2014 after Jayalalithaa was convicted in a disproportionate assets case. Again, he was the CM after her death in 2016. He launched a ‘Dharmayudham’ in February 2017, alleging he was forced to quit as CM and eventually joined hands with Palaniswami-led faction and they together eased out Jayalalithaa’s confidante VK Sasikala and her kin from the party.
