Rift in ruling regime keeps O Panneerselvam off MGR’s Madurai fete

As part of MGR centenary function, Edappadi Palaniswami reached Madurai and inaugurated a 100 feet tall flag mast in honour of party founder MGR. Several banners were erected at Thoppur near Madurai, where the flag mast was inaugurated, to welcome Palaniswami and in none of the banners the name of Panneerselvam or his supporters was found.

To add fuel to fire, Panneerselvam did not attend the inauguration programme though he was present in Madurai and visited two temples in the vicinity in the morning. Along with Panneerselvam, MLAs Saravanan of Madurai South Constituency and Manickam of Sholavandan constituency too were absent. Party MP V Maitreyan said that he and the MLAs were not invited to the function.

Panneerselvam’s name was not found even in the stone tablet that was fixed at the flag mast. However, when the controversy erupted, a separate stone tablet with his name was fixed at the left side of the flag mast base. Since it was the first function after regaining the party symbol, OPS’ absence did not go well with his supporters. 

A similar problem was witnessed in Rameswaram when the name of Ramanthapuram MLA, Anwar Rajha, was torn off from almost every flex banner while supporters of State Minister of Information Technology, M Manikandan, pasted his photo over those of Anwar Rajha’s at the venue of MGR centenary celebrations.