CHENNAI: After having lost the battle to the rival camp, former chief minister O. Panneerselvam on Thursday vowed to continue his fight with AIADMK general secretary V. K. Sasikala and her family till the time “Anna’s government” is restored. “Let us altogether stop the party and government from going into the hands of a single family again. Let us form a people’s government again in sync with the aspirations of people and till then this struggle will continue,” he said in a statement after Edappadi K Palanisami was made the chief minister.
“Till such time Puratchi Thalaivi Amma’s regime is restored, our struggle (Dharma Yudh) will continue,” he said.
Flanked by his colleagues, he thanked his followers and people for supporting him. “We will win this struggle with the support of Amma’s followers,” he said. In a press release later, in an apparent reference to his breaking ranks with Sasikala on February 7, he said, “We started a struggle to see that AIADMK does not become a property of a single family.”
He said he also chose to rebel with an aim of ensuring that “Amma’s regime does not become a government to guard the interests of a family by diverting from its path of people’s welfare”. Stressing that people and party cadres gave huge support to his “struggle,” he said people were agitated that a government is being formed only on the basis of “number of legislators forcibly confined (at a resort)”.
