Stay united, maintain status quo: BJP’s message to EPS, OPS

Amid a cold war between O Panneerselvam and Edappadi K Palaniswami, the BJP has counselled the warring AIADMK leaders to “put up a united face” and maintain status-quo in the party’s leadership hierarchy.

The message that the two leaders should stop bickering in the open and sort out issues between them is believed to have been conveyed to them through BJP leaders.

The advice was dished out to the AIADMK leaders’ days before they met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on July 26 and 27 respectively.

Though there is no official word on what transpired at the two meetings, sources in the AIADMK and BJP said the discussions are understood to have centred around the internal affairs of Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition party.

“BJP feels EPS and OPS should stay united and not fight with each other. This is the message that has been conveyed to both EPS and OPS separately by our leaders. They have been asked to resolve their difference and be united,” a senior BJP leader in New Delhi told DH.

Also read: OPS, EPS meet PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi

The meeting with Modi was a “courtesy call” as the two leaders wanted to “thank” the Prime Minister for campaigning for AIADMK candidates during the elections.

The BJP has also suggested that the AIADMK continue with the dual leadership model under which OPS is the coordinator and EPS is joint coordinator.

“In our opinion, this is the best way for the AIADMK in the current situation. We have told the AIADMK not to go for a singular leadership at this stage,” the leader quoted above added.

The development comes amid a clamour in AIADMK for reverting to single leadership. Many leaders have been voicing their opinion in private maintaining that the dual leadership has not worked, and that it was time to get back to “one leader.”

Panneerselvam and Palaniswami, who head the AIADMK jointly, don’t enjoy the best of the relations and have fought with each other at party meetings after the April 6 assembly elections which the party-led alliance lost.

On the issue of ousted AIADMK interim general secretary V K Sasikala, the BJP leader said the saffron party has decided to adopt a “wait and watch” strategy in this matter. “While it is for AIADMK to decide on the issue of Sasikala, we have decided to wait and watch the developments. She is talking to cadres but there is no upsurge for her among cadres. We don’t want to interfere at this point,” the leader said.

While Panneerselvam is not averse to doing business with Sasikala, Palaniswami is opposed to her entry. It was Palaniswami who stonewalled BJP’s efforts to bring Sasikala’s nephew T T V Dhinakaran into the AIADMK alliance in the run-up to the elections.

Palaniswami, who was handpicked by Sasikala to be Chief Minister in 2017, is opposed to her re-entry into AIADMK as such a development would undermine his authority.