OPS vs OPS vs OPS vs OPS vs OPS

After his frequent knocks on court doors to claim the party failed, the ex-CM is contesting from Ramanathapuram as officially an Independent, but is understood to be the candidate of the BJP-led NDA.

The four other OPS are also all Independents, with one of them a resident of Usilampatii, another of Kattur, and two of Madurai. In case of one, the resemblance with the original OPS goes deeper.

“This candidate, 61, is the son of Otchathevar; while the name of the ex-CM’s father is Ottakarathevar. The name Panneerselvam is common in Tamil, but a name starting with ‘O’ rare. The other Panneerselvams are the sons of Otchappan, Oyyaram and Oyyathevar, respectively,” an official said, adding that two more OPS may spring up on the candidate list by Wednesday, the last day of filing nominations.

In the tight political race expected in Tamil Nadu, the ex-CM, who is fighting his first Lok Sabha election, can hardly afford to lose votes to the other Panneerselvams.

Not surprisingly, both the AIADMK and DMK are claiming the other’s hand in what is one of the oldest tricks in the playbook to “confuse” voters.

While the Ramanathapuram constituency has a significant number of OBC Thevars, the community to which OPS belongs, the DMK and AIADMK will both start with an edge here due to their party cadres and minority support.

The Social Democratic Party of India, the political wing of the banned PFI, is an ally of the AIADMK in this election, while the DMK-led alliance’s candidate from Ramanathapuram is the IUML’s Nawaz Kani.

OPS the original can be pardoned for seeing himself as a victim of unending bad luck, since the death of AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa in December 2016. He was once her favourite courtier, with Jayalalithaa turning to him as many as three times when she needed someone to keep her seat warm till she had battled her latest legal hurdle.

When OPS finally took over as full-time CM after Jayalalithaa’s demise, his decline was precipitous. The costliest move was his action against Jayalalithaa’s close aide V K Sasikala, in early 2017, leading to the party being divided and his defeat in a trust vote.

OPS recovered some ground when he came together with Palaniswami, in mid-2017, to oust Sasikala and her nephew T T V Dhinakaran from the AIADMK. But this was at the cost of the CM post, which went to Palaniswami or EPS. After that, while EPS went from strength to strength, OPS as Deputy CM again found himself playing second fiddle.

In an indication of how far OPS has come from his glory days, the NDA of which he is a part also includes Dhinakaran, who is contesting from OPS’s native district of Theni.