OPS appeals for unified AIADMK and signals that he is ready for compromise

CHENNAI: Estranged AIADMK leader and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday gave a clarion call to the party workers to bury their differences and come together to revive the party.

"With our cooperation, we will reinvigorate the party founded and strengthened by revolutionary leaders G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, " OPS said in his social media post after tasting his first defeat in three decades of electoral politics.

He contested as independent candidate, as part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, in 'Jackfruit' symbol in Mukkulathor dominant Ramanathapuram constituency against Kani K Navas of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which is part of the DMK-led INDIA bloc, and AIADMK candidate P Jeya Perumal. Not to forget that the former CM had fought five other Panneerselvam in the constituency.

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Though he was defeated by the sitting MP Navas Kani with a margin of 1.66 lakh votes, OPS succeeded in garnering a lion share of the core AIADMK votes. It was evident as Jaya Perumal secured less than one lakh votes and pushed to distant third position. The margin between OPS and the AIADMK candidate was 2.43 lakh.

Sending a clear and loud message to Edappadi K Palaniswami that he is ready for a compromise and sacrifice, Panneerselvam said, "Breaking a single stick is easy, but it is difficult to break a bunch of sticks." He continued in the same vein and noted that convincing and pacifying the cadres by normalising the failures (in the electoral fronts) among them, henceforth, is a sin.

Recalling a popular song in MGR's Naalai Namathea movie, he said as the party founder's golden words on aligning together for a promising future. He appealed to the party cadres to prepare any sacrifice to restore the AIADMK regime as established by party leader Jayalalithaa (in 2016).

Panneerselvam's call for unity came a day after J Jayalalithaa's close aide V K Sasikala called for the same. However, the leaders in the AIADMK rebutted OPS and Sasikala that they have nothing to do with the AIADMK. Senior AIADMK leader K P Munusamy lashed out OPS that he was the person who formed an alliance with the BJP leader (K Annamalai) who defamed Dravidian icon C N Annadurai and party supremo J Jayalalithaa.