ஓ பன்னீர்செல்வம்: O. Panneerselvam: The Man Who Waited, Watched, and Lost His Grip on AIADMK
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O. Panneerselvam, the politician known across Tamil Nadu simply as OPS, has spent the better part of two decades as one of the most recognizable faces in the AIADMK. He served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu three times, each stint largely a placeholder role while Jayalalithaa dealt with legal troubles or health crises. He was loyal to a fault, and for years that loyalty kept him relevant. Then came the split, the court battles, and the slow unraveling of everything he had built.
The man who stood in when no one else could
Panneerselvam was first sworn in as Chief Minister in 2001 when Jayalalithaa was disqualified from holding office following a conviction. He stepped down the moment she returned. He did it again in 2014, and again in 2016 after her death, when the party needed a steady hand and a familiar face. Each time, he stepped aside without public complaint. In Tamil Nadu politics, that kind of quiet deference is either a virtue or a weakness, depending on who is watching.
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After Jayalalithaa died in December 2016, the question of who actually controlled AIADMK became impossible to ignore. Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who had served as Chief Minister, and Panneerselvam eventually merged their factions in 2017 after a brief and dramatic split. The reunion was uneasy from the start.
How the alliance fell apart
The tension between OPS and EPS, as the two leaders are commonly known, never really disappeared after the 2017 merger. By 2022, it had become open conflict. At a general council meeting in July 2022, the party voted to remove Panneerselvam from his position as coordinator and expelled him from AIADMK entirely. Panneerselvam challenged the expulsion in court, arguing the meeting itself was unconstitutional.
The legal battle stretched on, with Panneerselvam seeking reinstatement and recognition as the legitimate AIADMK leadership. Courts at various levels examined the party’s internal processes, its constitution, and the validity of the general council decisions. The rulings largely did not go in his favor.
Where things stand now
Panneerselvam has continued to operate as a separate political force, maintaining that he represents the true AIADMK and keeping the Jayalalithaa legacy as his political anchor. His support base, however, has thinned considerably. Several legislators and senior figures who initially backed him eventually drifted back toward the EPS-led faction.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, neither the OPS faction nor the EPS-led AIADMK had a strong showing, reflecting a broader decline in the party’s influence since losing power to the DMK in 2021.
What his story says about Tamil Nadu politics
OPS is, in many ways, a case study in the risks of building a political identity entirely around loyalty to another leader. When Jayalalithaa was alive, his deference was an asset. After her death, it left him without a distinct base of his own, dependent on a claim to her legacy that others contested just as fiercely.
At 73, Panneerselvam remains active in Tamil Nadu politics, filing petitions, making statements, and positioning himself ahead of the 2026 state assembly elections. Whether he can convert that activity into actual electoral relevance is the real question. The AIADMK civil war cost both factions, but it cost the OPS side more, and the path back to the center of Tamil Nadu politics looks considerably longer than it did even three years ago.
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