Ex-CM Panneerselvam backs Dhinakaran, Sengottaiyan

Madurai (Tamil Nadu), Sep 10 (PTI) Former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam on Wednesday backed Amma Makkal Munetra Kazhagam chief TTV Dhinakaran, and AIADMK leader K A Sengottaiyan as well and made it clear that he, however, did not have any specific demand to re-join the AIADMK.

Panneerselvam said he wholeheartedly welcomed unification efforts in the AIADMK and assured his complete cooperation.

"Everyone has the thought of unifying and only that will happen and only if it happens, the ideals of party founder MGR and late supremo Amma could be realised," he told reporters in Madurai in respect of Sengottaiyan, who was relieved from his party posts after he set a 10-day deadline to bring back expelled leaders to strengthen the party.

On Sengottaiyan's stand of bringing back ousted leaders, Panneerselvam expressed confidence that it would succeed. "My best wishes, let his demands succeed." Asked on AMMK chief Dhinakaran's stand that he would consider joining the NDA again if it was announced that Edappadi K Palaniswami was not the chief ministerial candidate for the 2026 Assembly election, Panneerselvam said it was a "good opinion." Further, he said: "There is no friend or enemy in politics, in future anything may happen." The former chief minister made it clear that he did not have any specific demand to join the AIADMK again.

Asked if he would accept Palaniswami as the CM candidate if he was taken back into the AIADMK, Panneerselvam said, "several issues have to be discussed." There are "6 cases" releated to the AIADMK leadership issue pending in court and such cases constitute the "basis of our Dharma yudham." When the Assembly election nears, changes would happen in politics, he expressed confidence.

Asked if the BJP tried to divide the AIADMK with political motives, he said he did not think so, adding that he had not got any invite so far from Saffron party's top leaders in Delhi; similar to the invitation Sengottaiyan received.

On September 9, Sengottaiyan said he met Union Ministers Amit Shah and Nirmala Sitharaman in Delhi and apprised them about unifying and strengthening AIADMK by bringing back expelled leaders.

Panneerselvam, confidante of late party supremo J Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikala and her close relative TTV Dhinakaran were the key leaders who had been expelled from the AIADMK. PTI VGN VGN KH