Reporter’s Diary: Supporters lose confidence in Deputy CM O Panneerselvam

An influential leader, who was among the first to stand by OPS when he had engineered the rebellion in 2017, is among the aggrieved lot. The biggest disgruntlements of the regional satrap from western TN was that OPS had turned his back on him when he complained about poor election coordination by the functionaries in his constituency. The leader, who used to always follow OPS during almost all the party meetings, has since refrained from sharing the dais with him, especially on June 5 when OPS had visited party presidium chairman E Madhusudhanan.

Not wasting time, the camp led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has sent feelers after the former loyalist complained to his confidants about the indifference OPS had shown towards him.

Even before he could recover from the supporter playing truant, OPS received another shocker on Saturday when the unhappy loyalist termed MLA Rajan Chellapa’s attack against the deputy CM as his “personal opinion”, something he wouldn’t normally do.

A minister who is a key person in the EPS camp immediately jumped in to utilise the opportunity to persuade the leader to switch sides in the interest of the party, not knowing that the leader would issue a relatively elaborate statement questioning Rajan Chellappa’s motive.  

— K Karthikeyan, Chennai