In a move to bounce back into the AIADMK fold, the deposed party coordinator and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, O. Panneerselvam (OPS) is aligning with the expelled interim general secretary of the party, V.K. Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran, sources said.
The three are from the powerful Thevar community of South Tamil Nadu and Thevar's have been the traditional support base of the AIADMK. Recently a meeting of the Thevar community decided to make an alliance between the three high profile leaders who had been very powerful during the golden time of AIADMK when J. Jayalalithaa was at the helm.
Sources close to OPS while speaking to IANS said, "OPS is a leader who can carry the grassroots of the party and there should be a unity between Sasikala, Dhinakaran and OPS to ensure that the Thevar vote bank is not split. A powerful OPS will have to be accommodated by the EPS faction and this is a movement for that."
With the 2024 Lok Sabha polls coming up, the AIADMK has to win a good number of seats from Tamil Nadu as in 2019 the party could win only one seat from the total 39 seats in the state. The lone winner was O.P. Raveendranathan, son of OPS from Theni constituency, the fiefdom of the OPS family.
The BJP also wants the two factions of the AIADMK to be together before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the saffron party is providing support for the meeting between V.K. Sasikala, OPS, and TTV Dhinakaran.
