Posters projecting OPS as ‘CM 2021’ create ripple in AIADMK  |  Photo Credit: PTI
Key Highlights
- This comes amid speculations of a factional tiff within the ruling AIAIDMK
- Party office-bearers said that some functionaries may have put up the posters “at a personal level”
- The posters have been put up at several places in Theni, the native district of Panneerselvam
Theni: Ahead of next year’s Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, posters projecting AIADMK leader and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam as the chief ministerial candidate of the ruling party for the2021 elections have sparked internal fissures.
The posters, put up at several places in Theni, the native district of Panneerselvam, hail him as the “one and only” CM candidate blessed by late party supremo J Jayalalithaa for the 2021 Assembly elections.
Panneerselvam “is the one and only Chief Minister blessed by Puratchi Thalaivi”, one of the posters read while another said that he was “Chief Minister” for the ordinary people and the poor.
OPS hailed as permanent CM
In one of the posters, he was hailed as the “permanent Chief Minister.”
The posters also included pictures of Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Jayalalithaa and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran.
Party office-bearers said that some functionaries may have put up the posters “at a personal level” and that the move has got nothing to do with Panneerselvam.
“Why were some ministers not questioned when they said Palaniswami should be the Chief Minister in 2021? When that is the case why should they take exception to such posters now?” a party functionary was quoted as saying by PTI.
Factional feud in AIADMK?
This comes amid speculations of a factional tiff within the ruling AIAIDMK that triggered after AIADMK’s leader and Minister Sellur K Raju said the elected MLAs would choose Chief Minister while another Minister KT Rajenthra Bhalaji endorsed the incumbent as the CM candidate.
Later, Panneerselvam had appealed to party men to act responsibly with a sense of duty and work unitedly.
“The AIADMK’s only goal is to emerge victorious for the third time in a row in the Assembly elections to be held in 2021. Victory is honourable Amma’s dream.To realise it, it is my appeal that we should act responsibly with a sense of duty, dignity and discipline,” Panneerselvam, who is the party coordinator, had written on Twitter.