CHENNAI: When the AIADMK party functionaries and cadres converged in large numbers in Madurai to script the beginning of the third chapter of the party under Edappadi K Palaniswami, his opponent camp under O Panneerselvam held a meeting in Chennai to devise their move.
Panneerselvam supporters said that their leader would take a State-wide campaign in the days to come to seek the support of the loyalist of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
"The EPS camp had organised the Madurai conference in response to our Trichy conference, which was a massive success and brought the true loyalists of Amma. They were rattled on seeing the support of party cadres to our leader on April 24," former MLA and OPS supporter A Subburathinam claimed.
A Subburathinam, however, ruled out the possibility of taking on EPS by organising a similar conference in the Western region.
"This topic has been discussed earlier. But a decision has been taken against it," he added who attended the meeting chaired by OPS and his political consultant Panruti S Ramachandran at Purasawalkam.
Another supporter, preferring anonymity, said that OPS would soon take up a state-wide campaign, covering all regions.
"We are expecting a resolution or an announcement regarding the State-wide meeting to take both EPs and the ruling party. The recent State-wide protest regarding the Kodanad heist-cm-murder case fetched a good response and it rattled the opposition camp, besides pinning down the ruling party for failing to speed up the case. Most importantly, AMMK leader (T T V Dhinakaran) has also joined hands with our leader and even participated in the protest in Theni. It gave a lot of political leverage for us," said the functionary.
He continued that they would insist the leadership to devise such a protest on key issues and join hands with AMMK cadres. It would pave the way to consolidate the vote bank ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.