A quick action plan and a series of negotiations by a group of top leaders in the AIADMK averted a major crisis that erupted all of a sudden on Saturday morning, turning Independence Day into a day of tiresome intra-party interactions that finally led to a truce between Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy and Deputy Chief Minister O Pannerselvam. Though there had been indications of brewing differences in the party over the doubts of the next Chief Ministerial candidate for the past few days with a few leaders expressing contradictory views, it was the appearance of a few wall posters in Pannerselvam’s Theni district that triggered Saturday’s events in Chennai.
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The wall posters proclaiming Pannerselvam as the ‘only Chief Minister to have enjoyed the blessings of J Jayalalithaa’, ‘simple CM for the poor and common people’, ‘Jayalalithaa’s political heir’ and ‘permanent Chief Minister’ came with a hashtag - #2021 CM for OPS. Apparently put up by the people of Kenjampatti village in Bodinayakannur Taluk of Theni district, the posters ignited a discussion soon after Palaniswamy concluded his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Fort St George, declaring that he had ‘the love and support of the people’ and that he would continue to work for them with their well-being as his only goal.
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Sensing trouble emerging within the party, a group of senior leaders went into a huddle for less than an hour at the chambers of Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar after both Palaniswamy and Pannerselvam had left for the day. Among them were Ministers Thangamani, S P Velumani, C Vijaybaskar, Dindigul Srinivasan, Kamaraj, C V Shanmugham, Kadambur Raju, Udhayakumar and K A Sengottaiyan, Deputy Speaker Pollachi Jayaraman and Natham Viswanathan.
