OPS now in DMK; candidate in Bodinayakanur 

CHENNAI: Jayalalithaa's confidant and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam has joined the DMK. He is also the former general secretary of AIADMK. Panneerselvam has resigned from the Bodinayakanur MLA seat in Theni district. He will contest the April elections on a DMK ticket here. His son and former MP Raveendranath and MLA Ayyappan and his followers have also joined the DMK.

Panneerselvam decided to join the DMK after all efforts to return to the AIADMK failed. OPS first met Minister Shekhar Babu on Friday morning. Both of them reached the DMK headquarters, Anna Arivalayam, in the same car. Chief Minister MK Stalin received them.

👉Out in the tug of war for power After Jayalalithaa's death, it was Edappadi Palaniswami who succeeded in the strategic move to become the Chief Minister with the support of Sasikala. Later, EPS and OPS jointly expelled Sasikala. Both continued as general secretaries of equal importance. Differences of opinion emerged after the 2021 election loss. OPS was expelled by EPS. Although EPS withdrew from the NDA in the last Lok Sabha elections, the OPS faction remained in it. Panneerselvam contested from the Ramanathapuram constituency but lost.

👉BJP also tried to bring him back When AIADMK returned to the NDA, the BJP national leadership demanded that OPS be considered, but EPS did not give in. In the meantime, former MLAs from the OPS faction, Manoj Pandian and Vaithilingam, went to the DMK. KP Krishnan and JCD Prabhakar went to the TVK. MP Dharmar returned to the EPS faction. In this situation, the only way forward for OPS was to go to the DMK to become a part of power politics.