OPS joins DMK ahead of TN polls

CHennai: Three-time former Tamil Nadu chief government minister and senior All bharat Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader, O Panneerselvam, 75, united the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the front of its chairperson and state chief minister M K Stalin on Friday, after doors were closed for him in the AIADMK led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).Panneerselvam, popularly known as OPS and once a trusted confidant of late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, was expelled from the party in 2022 by his arch rival and present AIADMK head Edappadi K Palaniswami.After failing to take control of the party through a long legal battle, Panneerselvam tried to rejoin the AIADMK with the help of Bharatiya Janata Party that anchors the NDA alliance in Tamil Nadu.However, Palaniswami refused to make room for OPS even though he was more accommodating with the AMMK’s TTV Dhinakaran. The AMMK joined the NDA alliance in the state in January.Last week OPS, who served as AIADMK Treasurer and also held the erstwhile top position of party coordinator, met Stalin and on Friday he joined the party with his son, P Ravindhranath Kumar.Speaking to reporters, Panneerselvam expressed happiness in joining the DMK and hit out at Palaniswami as an “autocrat” .“The decision I’ve taken is my own, to end a bitter experience for me. I thank CM and DMK President Stalin for accepting me. EPS is behaving as a dictator and he has created a situation where AIADMK cannot win,” Panneerselvam told media persons.M.K. Stalin welcomed Panneerselvam saying the latter has joined the mother organisation , a reference to the AIADMK’s provenance (a splinter group of the DMK in 1972).V K Sasikala, Jayalalithaa’s friend and confidante, who was also expelled from the AIADMK, and who recently announced the launch of her own party, on Friday termed OPS’s move a “grave mistake” even as she accused Palaniswami of dictatorial tendencies. “This decision by O Panneerselvam, is extremely unfortunate. Joining the DMK under the delusion that it is the “mother party” has turned out to be a grave mistake. But the root cause of all these circumstances is one person,” she said in a post on X, without naming Palanaswami.“Are you not embarrassed?” asked the AIADMK on X, highlighting OPS’s meteoric rise in the party.Beginning his life as a tea shop owner in Theni, OPS  became the chief minister for the first time at the age of 40 in 2001, after Jayalalithaa had to step down as chief minister when she faced a corruption case. Subsequently, he became the CM in 2014 after Jayalalithaa was convicted in a disproportionate assets case. And he was named the CM again after her death in 2016.OPS  launched a ‘Dharmayudham’ in February 2017 alleging he was forced to quit as CM and eventually joined hands with Palaniswami-led faction (which had allied with Sasikala to unseat him)  to ease out Sasikala and Dhinakaran (her nephew) from the party.But his relationship with Palaniswami soured and he was expelled in 2022.After his expulsion, he floated the AIADMK Workers’ Rights Retrieval Committee which in December 2025 was rechristened as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Workers Rights Retrieval Kazhagam.