Former Tamil Nadu CM O. Panneerselvam likely to join DMK today, supporters throng Anna Arivalayam | LIVE updates

Three-time Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and former coordinator of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), O. Panneerselvam, could not have imagined even when he was expelled from the party in July 2022, that one day he would visit Prime Minister MK Stalin’s house and interact with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president twice within 12 hours.

Mr. Panneerselvam, popularly known as OPS, is still considered persona non grata according to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami. As for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a party that Mr. Panneerselvam and his son meticulously cultivated after Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016, the “love spell” for septuagenarians no longer appears to exist. It has been a while since Mr. Panneerselvam met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Having survived many trials, Mr Panneerselvam, who appears to have exhausted the “good will of his benefactors”, including Mr Modi, is now at the mercy of Mr Stalin to keep himself and his loyalists afloat. AIADMK’s traditional supporters may not like it, but for Mr. Panneerselvam, it is a matter of life and death in electoral politics.

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