Chennai: Support for Chief Minister O Panneerselvam swelled on Saturday with school education minister ‘MaFoi’ K Pandiarajan, four Lok Sabha MPs and senior leader C. Ponnaiyan joining his camp on the fifth day of his rebellion against AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala.
Mr Panneerselvam got a shot in the arm when six senior leaders of the AIADMK ditched the Sasikala camp and expressed their support to him. All of them took a dig at the rival camp, accusing them of trying to foist “family rule” in Tamil Nadu.
The MPs and Mr Ponnaiyan accused Ms Sasikala and her family of not allowing them to meet late Jayalalithaa during her stay at Apollo Hospitals.
Welcoming Mr Pandiarajan, the first minister to join his camp and the most prominent AIADMK face on the television passionately arguing the party’s case in every debate, Mr Panneerselvam said it was the “people’s revolution” that has brought Pandiarajan to his camp.
During the day, the Chief Minister also welcomed P. R. Sundaram, K. Ashok Kumar and V. Sathyabama and Vanaroja — Lok Sabha members from Namakkal, Krishnagiri, Tirupur and Tiruvannamalai— and Ponnaiyan, the party’s spokesperson and organising secretary, into his dissident camp. Mr Ponnaiyan, who met Mr Panneerselvam in the evening, is one of the founding members of the AIADMK and had been part of the cabinets of M. G. Ramachandran and. J Jayalalithaa.
The school education minister, who was part of the high-powered delegation led by Sasikala that met Governor CH Vidyasagar staking the claim to form the government, was under tremendous pressure from public in his constituency and social media users to join the OPS camp. He was being trolled on Twitter for the past few days.
And on Saturday, Mr Pandiarajan gave hints about his joining the OPS camp on Twitter before he drove to the Greenways Road residence of the Chief Minister to meet him personally and express his support.
“My belief is that here is the man who has captured the hearts of the masses. Amma’s legacy will continue to rest on his able shoulders and that is the reason I am here. I took this decision to ensure that the AIADMK remains united and the DMK’s dream of engineering a split in the party does not come true,” Mr Pandiarajan said,
The minister said he has been getting calls from Tamils across the globe asking him to express support to Mr Panneerselvam to continue as Chief Minister. “This caretaker government will transform into a permanent regime,” he said.
The minister, who represents Avadi on the outskirts of the city, expressed the hope that every MLA would come around and finally support Mr Panneerselvam.
Mr Panneerselvam welcomed Mr Pandiarajan and said: “Let us work together and stop the party and government slipping into the hands of a family.” The minister also said the Governor should evaluate scope of a person who is not a member of the Assembly getting elected to the House within six months before swearing-in as Chief Minister.
