OPS throws down the gauntlet to EPS: ‘If you don’t want AIADMK united, then start a new party’

At the meeting presided over by the OPS faction’s political advisor and former minister Panruti S Ramachandran, OPS was seen talking aggressively. Unlike his usual calm style, the former Deputy Chief Minister, who was in a confrontational tone, asked Palaniswami, “Who are you to bring disgrace to the party founded by MGR and nurtured by Jayalalithaa?”

The meeting was attended by office-bearers and district secretaries of the OPS faction amid the ongoing legal battle with EPS for the leadership of the party. Soon after OPS made strong remarks about the leadership of EPS, AIADMK spokesperson and former minister D Jayakumar said, “OPS means nothing but a private limited company.”

“What they are having today is a board meeting of directors. They have issued an advertisement to hire people and recruited them for jobs … We don’t consider it a political party,” Jayakumar said.

In his speech at the meeting on Wednesday, OPS said it was EPS’s “autocratic attitude without any self-respect” that led to the party’s defeat in the 2021 Assembly elections.

“After the death of Amma (late J Jayalalithaa), she was given the honour of ‘permanent general secretary’. It was given in recognition of her sacrifice and contributions to the party. But this leadership is betraying her too. Will anyone pardon them?” OPS asked.

“Earlier, the AIADMK had room for an ordinary worker like me to emerge as chief minister. But it has changed now, money has become the key factor,” OPS said, gesturing that money power made EPS powerful.

“It all started from Koovathur,” he said, referring to an internal crisis that saw the VK Sasikala faction take control of a majority of AIADMK MLAs that eventually led to the defeat of OPS, who was the chief minister at the time, in an Assembly floor test in early 2017.

This helped EPS, then a trusted aide of Sasikala, to become the CM. However, five years later, OPS has joined hands with Sasikala while EPS, who controls the party with the support of a majority of office-bearers, opposes both thei rre-entry into the party.

Referring to a recent statement of EPS, OPS said, “Someone says that he cannot be with a united party … Nobody can help him then. He says there is not even a one per cent chance for the party to get united again. You start a new party and run it then… If you have the courage, you run the party on your own… Come to the street, and declare that ‘I am starting a new party,’” OPS told his rival.

OPS said there was almost Rs 256 crore in the bank account of the AIADMK, which came from ordinary party workers. “The interest from that amount is used for the party’s day-to-day operations. If that money is going to be misused by this leadership, we will make sure that they will face legal action,” OPS said.