Chennai: O. Paneerselvam (OPS) Monday pulled out his candidate, Senthil Murugan, from the Erode East assembly bypolls scheduled to be held later this month, thus averting what could have been the first electoral test of strength between the two All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) factions. The Bharatiya Janata Party, an ally of the AIADMK in Tamil Nadi is said to have played mediator.
Speaking at a press conference Saturday, BJP state president K. Annamalai said that the party preferred Edappadi K Palanisamy’s (EPS) candidate, 65-year-old K.S. Thennarasu, for the polls as he was a two-time MLA and a stronger candidate. An appeal to OPS to withdraw his candidate was also put forward by the BJP. Annamalai’s statement came days after his meeting with both EPS and OPS earlier this month.
“BJP is the binding factor and has brought the two factions together to make them form a formidable opposition,” said professor Ramu Manivanan, of the department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Madras.
Both EPS and OPS factions have, however, denied the BJP’s involvement in the decision.
Last week, after AIADMK interim general secretary EPS had announced Thennarasu’s name for the Erode bypolls, expelled leader OPS had declared Murugan’s candidature. OPS had clarified, however, that he will withdraw his candidate if the BJP fielded its candidate for the polls.
The AIADMK had established OPS and EPS as the party’s coordinator and co-coordinator in a system of dual leadership, after the demise of party chief J. Jayalalithaa in 2016. Trouble between the two started brewing last year, as EPS made an attempt to gain solo leadership of the party. In July last year, EPS was elected the AIADMK’s interim general secretary, while the party’s general council adopted a resolution to remove OPS from the party’s primary membership.
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BJP the mediator?
After the demise of AIADMK chief and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, in 2016, the party witnessed several turmoils and since 2017, critics claim, OPS has been “puppet” to the BJP. In 2018, OPS, then deputy CM of the state, claimed at a party event that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged him to bring his and EPS factions together. A demand, the BJP leadership has made even now.
“This (trying to bring the two factions together) is an attempt to cut and paste, a patchwork and the coming together of the two factions doesn’t have the depth or the vote transfer that would be required for winning an election,” said Manivanan.
Senior political analyst Priyan (who only goes by a single name) added: “There has been enormous pressure from the BJP to OPS to withdraw his candidacy. EPS meanwhile is not bothered about the BJP.” According to Priyan, in the initial posters that were put up in the AIADMK election office in Erode, no mention of the BJP was made and the alliance was called the National Democratic Progressive Alliance instead of NDA. The banner was later changed.
“For 2024 (Lok Sabha elections) BJP doesn’t have the muscle yet to take the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) and its alliance on their own. AIADMK is required for them for the time being and hence the BJP has control over the two factions,” Sumanth C. Raman, also a senior political analyst, told ThePrint,
He added: “BJP is worried that EPS might become more powerful and what is the way of preventing that, it is by propping up OPS, getting some court cases filed and making it look like EPS is not in control.”
Political observers also believe that even though EPS’s faction has been holding the BJP responsible for the electoral defeat in 2021 state assembly polls, both factions of the AIADMK have maintained a cordial relationship with BJP, given that the use of the party’s two leaves symbol issue still is under the Election Commission’s consideration, following the feud between the EPS-OPS factions. The EC has allowed the EPS faction to use it for the Erode East bypolls.
EPS faction leads the way
Meanwhile, AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan denied the BJP’s role in defusing the Erode bypoll candidature crisis. “AIADMK headed by EPS doesn’t need brokerage or mediators or consultants. He clearly knows how to run a party,” Sathyan told ThePrint.
The OPS faction too has denied the BJP’s involvement in the issue. J.C.D. Prabhakaran, an OPS faction member told ThePrint, “The BJP has no role in this, it is an independent decision that OPS has taken based on the recent Supreme Court judgment.”
In an interim order last week, the Supreme Court had asked the two AIADMK factions to put forward a joint candidate for the upcoming bypolls, by making a decision through the party’s general council. The court advised the presidium chairman of the AIADMK’s general council, A. Tamil Magan Hussain, to communicate the decision to the Election Commission.
“We have pointed out mistakes of the presidium chairman, selection was not as per SC instruction,” said Prabhakaran, insisting on the faction’s intention to support the two leaves symbol.
“The judgment of the SC was clearly favourable to the EPS faction, he has the support of the majority of the general council,” said Priyan, who pointed out that it has been OPS who has been losing out more in the arrangement with the BJP.
“He was promised Chief Minister candidature in 2021, but EPS had consolidated support. Later, the promised leader of opposition position too was taken away by EPS and now he has had to give up on fielding a candidate in the Erode east by polls as well. OPS will soon lose his image in front of the few followers that he has,” added Priyan.
On 7 February, 2017, OPS had sat on a “Dharma Yudham” against V.K. Sasikala, who was T the helm of affairs of the party back then. “Five years later today on another 7 February, OPS’ Dharma Yudham against Edappadi K. Palanisamy, who now holds the post of the interim general secretary of AIADMK, looks like a lost battle,” said Priyan.
Describing the current strategical move (taking the lead in announcing the candidate for the bypolls before BJP has decided its stand ) of the EPS-led AIADMK, Ramu said, “The AIADMK will also see BJP as a threat. Unless AIADMK is wiped out only then BJP can be an alternative to DMK. It is only because of OPS that BJP is breathing hot and cold in TN politics.”
The BJP meanwhile maintained that they do not interfere in the internal politics of the AIADMK, “Our aim is to defeat DMK. We have openly asked the two factions to come together and that is what has happened,” said BJP state vice president Narayanan Thirupathy.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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