OPS holds meeting with supporters

Former Chief Minister and rebel AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam chaired a meeting with his supporters on Saturday to discuss their next course of action.   Following the demise of Congress MLA Thirumagan Eevera due to cardiac arrest on January 4, Erode East constituency fell vacant. The election commission scheduled a by-poll on February 27 to fill the vacancy. 

The DMK and its alliance had allocated the seat to the Congress as per the poll pact and the Congress in turn announced former union minister and the father of the deceased MLA EVKS Elangovan as their candidate.
Announcing their decision to contest alone in the by-election, DMDK had announced the party’s district secretary S Anand as their candidate and Naam Thamizhar party had decided to announce a woman as their candidate.

Both the AIADMK leaders Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS) had made separate announcements regarding their decisions to nominate a person from their factions as their candidate.  A day ago, EPS had moved the Supreme Court seeking their intervention in directing the election commission to recognize his appointment as the party’s interim general secretary and acknowledge the abolishment of coordinator post as per the decisions taken at the general council meeting on July 11.

AIADMK stalwarts

However, OPS and his supporters refuse to accept the council’s decision and have moved the Court challenging the decision.  The case is still pending before the court. Proclaiming that their faction has been the actual followers of AIADMK stalwarts, OPS has appointed about 88 district secretaries and over 100 state functionaries across the state.

OPS also said that he was ready to support the BJP candidate if they were willing to contest. 
However, the BJP is yet to make a final decision. Meanwhile, OPS has been conducting a meeting with his supporters at his house in Chennai about their next course of action regarding the by-poll.  Topics like selecting the right candidate, two-leaves symbol and their next course of action if the BJP refuses to support them, were discussed. Politicians including Vaithiyalingam, Vellamandi Natrajan, Krishnan and Manoj Pandian attended the meeting.