CHENNAI:
The two rival factions of AIADMK led by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam have announced their merger on Monday in their party head-quarters.
OPS, Jayalalithaa’s staunch loyalist and stand-in during her lifetime, will be Deputy Chief Minister with the finance portfolio and also take charge of the party as coordinator, helped by a “coordination committee”.
As part of the pact, three OPS supporters will be ministers. Maharashtra Governor CH Vidyasagar Rao, who has additional charge of Tamil Nadu, has cleared the appointments.
A decision is likely to be taken on the formal expulsion of V K Sasikala and her family members, a key demand by the OPS camp. In a resolution on August 10, the chief minister’s camp had already delegitimised Deputy general Secretary and Sasikala’s nephew TTV Dhinakaran setting the stage for a merger.
The merger talks began gaining momentum after Palaniswami agreed to some of the demands put forth by Panneerselvam. The Chief Minister set up an inquiry commission to probe the death of J Jayalalithaa and announced that her Poes Garden residence, Ved Nilayam, would soon be converted into a memorial. However, no decision was taken on the demand of a CBI probe in the late chief minister’s death.
The AIADMK had split months after the death of J Jayalalithaa, the film star-turned-powerful leader who headed both the party and the state government until her death in December.
The Chief Minister – seen in a recent leaked video falling at Sasikala’s feet – was believed to have agreed to start the process of distancing the party from Sasikala but the OPS camp had been emphatic about an unambiguous and public declaration of Sasikala’s expulsion.
Sasikala, a long-time friend of Jayalalithaa, took control of the party after her death and soon angled for the Chief Minister’s post, forcing the resignation of OPS who then rebelled. Sasikala’s plans crashed when she was sentenced to a four-year jail term for corruption. Before going to jail, she named EPS as the new Chief Minister and her nephew, TTV Dhinakaran, the AIADMK’s number No 2.
Dhinakaran, who has been sidelined to facilitate the merger, has been trying to rally his supporters for a fightback and even met his aunt in jail last week. Seventeen lawmakers backing him are at his home and a few more are arriving in what turned out to be a show of strength.
On Friday evening, party members waited for hours at the beachside memorial at Chennai of Jayalalithaa but the merger fell through despite the Chief Minister agreeing to a demand for an investigation into how she died.
Palaniswami and Panneerselvam’s separate meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi recently were seen to be the propellant for a merger. The BJP is believed to be heavily invested in a reunited AIADMK as it tries to gain political space in Tamil Nadu, which has always oscillated between the regional rivals AIADMK and DMK.
