Posted by Chennai: For someone who was twice chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and finance minister for a long time, Ottakarathevar Panneerselvam, better known as OPS, is an unlikely candidate for the Lok Sabha, given that he has been part of the state politics for such a long time.
Outwitted by EPS, who was below him in the power structure during the Jayalalithaa days, OPS today cuts a sorry and lonely figure, for someone who had the AIADMK leaders and cadres kowtow to him during Amma’s reign. After the AIADMK’s disastrous defeat in the 2021 Assembly election, a power struggle ensured and OPS and his supporters were expelled from the party.
The courts too have ruled in favour of OPS’s rival, EPS, as the leader of AIADMK, and he now gets to use the party’s name and its beloved electoral symbol ‘Two Leaves’.
And OPS, who represents Bodinayakanur constituency in the Assembly, is now contesting to the Lok Sabha as an independent, after pleading with the BJP and getting its support. In desperation, with his political present in tatters, and his future bleak, he has launched an outfit with a mouthful of a name, Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhaga Cadres Right Retrieval Organisation, to rally those marginalised by the EPS faction.
His party is now part of the BJP-led alliance in the Lok Sabha election, and the twice chief minister’s outfit has been allotted a grand one seat, which OPS will contest from Ramanathapuram. His past rivals in AIADMK, who he expelled from the party when he controlled, Amma’s close confidante and her nephew TTV Dinakaran have been allotted two seats.
Contesting the Lok Sabha election is the proverbial last throw of the dice by OPS to keep himself relevant, and the BJP is likely to use him against the AIADMK in its strategy to marginalise its former ally. But he will face K Navas Kani of the IUML, which is part of the DMK-led front, and of course, his former AIADMK colleague, K Jeyaperumal. It is an existential struggle, and if OPS can pull it off, defeating his rivals, he may still be around in Tamil Nadu politics. A defeat will mean the political UPS has shut down on OPS.