A TRIANGULAR POWER TUSSLE

Differences between top leaders of the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) have been sharpening ever since the party’s assembly election debacle in April.

- Amarnath K. Menon

In a series of recent moves, former chief minister E.K. Palaniswami (EPS) has sought to tighten his hold on the party. For one, he has ensured that several numerically and electorally significant communities of Tamil Nadu are represented in the AIADMK legislature party executive. On June 14, he also got one of his loyalists, former minister S.P. Velumani, appointed as the party whip in the assembly—a post EPS’s rival O. Panneerselvam (OPS) had been eyeing for his camp. EPS, who is the leader of the 66-member AIADMK legislature party, also succeeded in getting OPS to settle for the post of deputy leader of the legislature party.

Analysts say that with these appointments, EPS, 67, has gained an upper hand and forced OPS to play second fiddle. The 70-year-old OPS is peeved about being denied the opportunity to be leader of the opposition. Unlike EPS, who was chief minister for over four years since February 2017, he has had only brief stints as stand-in CM. Appointed to the post after J. Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016, OPS feels he should have been allowed to continue rather than pave the way for EPS.

Anti-EPS posters had sprung up in parts of Tamil Nadu ahead of the June 14 election of the deputy leader of the legislature party even as OPS, keen to show his clout, signalled that he was not keen on functioning as EPS’s deputy. However, he appears to have backed off from presenting himself as a strong challenger for now.

SASIKALA’S SHADOW