No end to EPS-OPS feud: Over 100 AIADMK members sacked since June 11 general council meeting
16 July, 2022 | Pravina Srivastava
The conflict between Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS) is far from over as both have started a campaign to "expel" the other's supporters since the general council meeting on J...
The conflict between Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS) is far from over as both have started a campaign to “expel” the other’s supporters since the general council meeting on July 11, when EPS was expelled by OPS after being chosen as the party’s interim general secretary, and OPS responded by saying he was exiling the former from the organisation.
Now, 21 OPS followers have been kicked out of the party by EPS, who appears to have taken over leadership of AIADMK. 39 OPS followers have been fired by the former chief minister so far for suspected “anti-party acts” after OPS was demoted to AIADMK coordinator and dismissed from the organisation. The line of fire also includes former minister Natarajan, ex-MLA Syed Khan, R T Ramachandran, and Selvaraj.
The two OPS sons, V P Jayapradeep and O P Ravindranath, were also kicked out.
The important AIADMK General Council meeting on July 11 saw the passage of 16 resolutions, including the elimination of the dual leadership system in the party and the elimination of the coordinator and joint-coordinator positions.
The party has been operating under a dual leadership structure since Jayalalithaa’s passing in 2016, with EPS serving as co-coordinator and OPS as coordinator. Since the district secretary meeting on June 14 of this year, the call for a single head of the party has been increasingly stronger.
Additionally, a separate resolution to fire OPS, JCD Prabhakar, Vaithilingam, and Manoj Pandian was approved.
A new election will be held within four months to elect the party’s primary members to the position of general secretary, which has been restored.
However, OPS has adopted a same strategy in response and has so far fired 66 members of the AIADMK, including EPS, Jeyakumar, Udhayakumar, and Munusamy.
“The decision of General Council to dismiss me is invalid… We will follow the law and file a lawsuit. They have no authority to eject me, “OPS reported.
KP Munusamy and Natham Vishwanathan were named as deputy general secretaries earlier on Wednesday by the EPS-led AIADMK. Ponnaiyan and SP Velumani were chosen by the party to serve as headquarters and international MGR forums, respectively.
Additionally, the party’s organizational secretaries were Sellur Raju, Shanmugam, Dhanapal, Rajendra Balaji, Kadambur Raju, and six other individuals.