O Panneerselvam accuses Edappadi K Palanisamy of making deceptive moves

“Until our demand for a thorough probe into late CM Jayalalithaa’s death are met and we rescue the party from the clutches of a single family, there is no scope for merger talks,” Pannerselvam said at a public meeting held in RK Nagar. Paneerselvam also took on DMK Working President MK Stalin at the meeting and said that he could not win the Assembly elections despite touring across the state campaigning for the party. 

Earlier, AIADMK (PTA) sources said that Panneerselvam’s plan to tour the districts to gauge the public and party cadre mood over the merger of both rival units was in all likelihood expected to start within a week as opposed to his earlier plan to do so from next month.

While insiders revealed that this was a move to pressurise the rival AIADMK(A) faction to come to the negotiating table after meeting the major condition of ouster of Sasikala’s family from the party, Madras university political science professor Ramu Manivannan said, “This could also be a move to buy time. Even EPS’s move to get affidavits from district secretaries over three days at the party office was a move to buy time after announcing that Deputy General Secretary TTV Dinakaran has stepped aside.”