Panneerselvam camp mulling the option of joining hands with DMK

Hit by erosion of strength and the continued rejection by the AIADMK’s general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami of overtures to return, the camp led by former Chief Minister, O. Panneerselvam, is mulling the option of joining the DMK-headed alliance.

A few days ago, Alangulam’s legislator Paul Manoj Pandian, who was with Mr Panneerselvam ever since the former Chief Minister launched “dharma yudham” in February 2017 against the “domination” of former interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala and her family in the affairs of the AIADMK, crossed over to the DMK.  

At the time of expulsion of Mr Panneerselvam from the party in July 2022,  former legislator of Villivakkam J.C.D. Prabhakar was with his camp and in the last one-and-a-half years, he had distanced himself from the camp.  The other prominent member of the camp is R. Vaithilingam, who is said to be having indifferent health. P. Ayyappan of Usilampatti is another law maker who is in the camp.

Mr Panneerselvam, who was with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) till a couple of months ago, met Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and he said the meeting was to condole the death of the Chief Minister’s brother M K Muthu.  Even though the AIADMK’s former coordinator had rejected the talk of political significance behind the talk, what was obvious was that he had warmed up towards Mr Stalin. 

One view that is being expressed in the camp is that those who were in the AIADMK had either joined the DMK or became a constituent of the front headed by the Dravidian major.

A classic example was Su. Thirunavukkarasar [earlier known as S. Thirunavukkarasu], who was considered a blue-eyed boy of the AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran when the latter was alive. Also known as “Chinna MGR,” Mr Thirunavukkarasar, now in the Congress, did not hesitate to join the DMK-led coalition in the 1991 Assembly election when he found himself out of the AIADMK. After his exit, he ran a party - Anna Puratchi Thalaivar Tamizhaga Munnetra Kazhagam (APTTMK) - and got nine Assembly seats allotted to his organisation. Among the seats were Aranthangi. Sattur and Madurantakam constituencies, which were represented in the dissolved Assembly by Mr. Thirunavukkarasu, K.K. S.S. Ramachandran (now in the DMK and Revenue Minister) and S. D. Ugamchand. All the three had been expelled from the AIADMK led by Jayalalithaa. At that time, Mr Thirunavukkarasar had justified his decision, by saying that when Jayalalitha, sought to “destroy him and his colleagues politically,” the DMK president M. Karunanidhi had extended them the needed support. It was only proper that as “grateful persons,” they returned the courtesy and helped the DMK.   He added then that the support of the DMK was sought in January 1988 for the survival of the AIADMK regime led by Janaki Ramachandran.

Those who take this line are of the view that a political entity has to take decisions, depending upon the “prevailing situations,” says a senior functionary.

A. Subburathinam, former legislator of Palani and a key office-bearer of the camp, says the pros and cons of various options are being considered by the camp.