With less than a year to go before Assembly elections, Tamil Nadu seems to be divided over who will become the Chief Ministerial candidates. While the party is yet to make a decision, recently posters that extolled former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam have created quite a stir.
Hours later, as per a PTI news update, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had asserted that he has the love and support of the people, vowing to continue to work for them with their well-being as the only goal.
For the uninitiated, late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa had hand-picked Panneerselvam for the Chief Ministerial post on two separate occasions when she'd had to temporarily step aside. Following her death, he had led the state from December 2016 till February 2017.
Jayalalithaa's close Sasikala however chose Palaniswami. Even as her play for the Chief Minister's post ended with a conviction in a disproportionate assets case, the selection triggered a protest from Panneerselvam. Two months after Jayalalithaa's death however, Palaniswami was appointed as the Chief Minister.
Eventually, Panneerselvam became the Deputy Chief Minister.
The posters that surfaced on Saturday claimed that O Panneerselvam was the only Chief Ministerial candidate blessed by late party supremo J Jayalalithaa for the 2021 Assembly elections were found stuck on walls. They made an appearance in the Theni district, his home district.
While one poster had said he was "the one and only Chief Minister blessed by Puratchi Thalaivi" (Revolutionary leader, a reference to Jayalalithaa)" another called him the Chief Minister for the ordinary people and the poor. A third hailed him as the "permanent Chief Minister." A common tag line found in a variety of posters was #2021 CM for OPS, suggesting that Panneerselvam should be the CM candidate.
When asked, party office-bearers here said: "This has got nothing to do with Panneerselvam. Some functionaries may have done this at a personal level. But even as speculation broke out, Party deputy coordinator K P Munsamy had said that the AIADMK top leadership would take a decision on the Chief Ministerial candidate for assembly elections and announce it at an appropriate time.
Later on Saturday, party Coordinator Panneerselvam and Joint Coordinator K Palaniswami said nothing is going to be gained by the party by airing of such personal views in public. In a joint statement the two leaders said that the personal views of some party officials without any basis had resulted in unnecessary speculations. They said that while participating in the media debates, the spokespersons should instead highlight the government's achievements and its schemes.
(with inputs from agencies)
