A 'true loyalist' turned 'rebel': Saga of OPS' political odyssey

Chennai: O Panneerselvam earned the title of a 'true loyalist' from his boss J Jayalalithaa for “handing over” the saddle intact to her in February 2002 after she had to step down as Chief Minister the previous year due to a court verdict.

The 75-year-old believed the fact that he had been chosen by Jayalalithaa twice to serve as stand-in CM for her would win him positions within the party without much hard work, even after the AIADMK supremo was long gone.

Used to playing second fiddle -- first to Jayalalithaa and then to his junior colleague Edappadi K Palaniswami -- OPS never asserted his authority within the AIADMK or in the government, as indecisiveness became an integral part of him.

And the loyalist tag took a severe beating in July 2022 when his supporters, under OPS’s supervision, ransacked the AIADMK headquarters hours before he was sacked from the party by EPS.

On Friday, he altogether dumped the legacy of Jayalalithaa to join arch-rival DMK, the party he and his late leader had opposed tooth and nail.

In fact, OPS’s downfall began within months of Jayalalithaa’s death. His now infamous “Dharma Yudham” against V K Sasikala on February 7, 2017, at the behest of RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy, was the start of his failure as a leader.

Despite the mighty BJP solidly backing him and the then-governor delaying Sasikala’s swearing-in as CM, OPS failed to garner support from party MLAs—only 10 of the 136 AIADMK MLAs backed him. Had he not rebelled against Sasikala, OPS might have become CM once again, and the future of the AIADMK could have been different.

After the Supreme Court convicted her in a disproportionate assets (DA) case, Sasikala chose Palaniswami as the legislature party leader.

BJP, which was fishing in the troubled waters of the AIADMK, began using OPS as its chip to cut Palaniswami to size. BJP forced EPS and OPS to coexist as CM and deputy CM -- the latter proudly proclaimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was behind their reunion.

It is an open secret that OPS was the BJP’s man in the AIADMK, and he thought the saffron party would travel with him forever and handhold him every time he suffered a political fall.

Prof. Ramu Manivannan, who taught political science at the University of Madras, told DH that Friday’s development shows the huge gap that has come between the BJP and OPS, not OPS and AIADMK.

“He has practically been working against the AIADMK ever since he lost power and in his fight against EPS. It is a fact that he has been undercover for the BJP, and his joining the DMK shows his relationship with the BJP has soured,” Manivannan added.

Panneerselvam never demonstrated his influence when he yielded power and failed to inspire leaders and cadres of the AIADMK. He kept losing to Palaniswami, who deftly used his political acumen to consolidate his position within the party -- first as Chief Minister, then as Chief Ministerial nominee for the 2021 polls, and finally as the leader of the AIADMK.

After his expulsion, OPS could not even muster the courage to float a new political party but kept dithering on the decision, which prompted him to enter the 2024 Lok Sabha poll fray as an independent candidate in Ramanathapuram. He then quit the NDA in 2025 and was mulling joining TVK of actor Vijay but finally landed in the DMK.

OPS’s indecisiveness and U-turns have also been legendary. Even as he publicly accused Sasikala of conspiring against Jayalalithaa, OPS had a private meeting with her nephew, T T V Dhinakaran, and stayed in touch with the family—he always gave EPS the room to suspect that he could convert any day and turn into a supporter of Sasikala or her family.