REPORTER’S DIARY: Master master, we stand together waiting for you

CHENNAI: It has been months since AIADMK leaders Edappadi Palaniswamy and O Panneerselvam shared the dais or jointly gave an audience to the party workers. Though party workers used to call them Che Guevara and Fidel Castro of AIADMK, the duo is now notorious for their power-fighting.

The clash between EPS and OPS did not just echo in the court halls, it had even surfaced in the State assembly. During the recent TNLA session, EPS and OPS were wary of sitting together in the assembly hall. Certainly, Team EPS was cautious in avoiding OPS’s group inside the assembly despite the lack of announcement of separate seating arrangements for the former CMs.

Exchanging heated statements and removing and appointing new functionaries to the party has become a routine for both leaders. However, such an intense enmity buckled before Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he had visited the state to take part in the Gandhigram National Rural Institute’s convocation.

Followers of EPS and OPS claim that their leaders did not even have a conversation while meeting the PM. However, analysts opine that both politicians wouldn’t even sit together in the assembly to discharge their duty as people’s representatives, they didn’t hesitate to stand together to meet the PM.

But such reverence is hardly surprising from the duo. Let’s not forget OPS’s admission that he was made deputy CM in 2017 after merging his faction with the EPS-led group at Modi’s behest.