Post TTV Dhinakaran's arrest: O Panneerselvam's camp gets stronger at table

Chennai: Post-TTV arrest, two divergent moods are now sweeping across the rival AIADMK groups. Several lieutenants in the ruling faction are rattled by the arrest of their deputy general secretary and fear the long arm of the law might even catch up with them, say insiders, confessing that indications coming from 'friends' in Central probe agencies and the media are 'unnerving'.

Most members in the O. Panneerselvam camp, on the other hand, are celebrating. “We expect that this arrest (of TTV) will speed up the merger (of the two rival factions) and OPS will return as Chief Minister”, said a senior member of the faction. In fact, the Edappadi camp got quickly energetic in its merger efforts after TTV's midnight arrest. “A few friends on other side (EPS group) have been talking to us. They say some of their colleagues are now seeing OPS as an umbrella under which they could duck from the approaching storm (raids and arrests)”.

The nightmares stalking EPS campers got scarier as reports emerged that BJP national secretary H. Raja, in his FB post, said now that TTV and his aide Mallikarjun have been arrested, similar fate awaited (some) AIADMK ministers too. The dawn after the TTV arrest saw the pulling down of the massive Sasikala banners from the tall walls of the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai - presidium chairman E. Madhusudhanan had demanded that on Tuesday as the first step towards the merger talks. Just a few hours before Chinnamma's images came crashing down, CM’s forest minister Dindigul Srinivasan had snapped at a reporter who sought his response to Madhusudhanan's demand.

If that demand had sounded blasphemous to Srinivasan and company when Madhusoodhanan dared to make it, the midnight arrest shook their anger to its roots. “They saw the futility and even danger in holding on to a rotten raft that has already hit the sea bottom”, said political analyst Ravindran Doraisamy. “Those who have been enthusiastically flinging spanners in the (merger) works are now fleeing. They do not want to be seen as spoilsports and end up before the next firing squad”. Perhaps that explains Edappadi’s chief negotiator R. Vaithilingam fast-softening his Monday warning that OPS laying pre-conditions — ejection of the Sasikala clan from the party and CBI probe into Jayalalithaa’s treatment/death — would endanger smooth negotiations. On Wednesday evening, he was oozing confidence that the merger talks would succeed. “A conducive atmosphere has now emerged. Talks will begin soon”, he said.

Then came from him the best piece of prose that went before TV cameras since the merger initiative began some ten days ago. “The talks will be smooth and ensure fruition of Amma’s dream of having our government for 100 years, uninterrupted”. In the OPS camp, spokesman K. P. Munusamy had exuded similar confidence earlier in the day, obviously enthused by the midnight arrest. “A good atmosphere for (merger) talks has now emerged. This is demonstrated by their (Edappadi) conceding to our demand for removal of Sasikala banners from party office. We are happy”, he said, before delivering his stinging punch: “We have suffered split in the party when MGR died, but none tried to bribe the Election Commission to retrieve our ‘Two Leaves’ symbol. Dhinakaran has now put us to great shame”.  

If the Edappadi campers are now eager for peace talks mostly out of fear that they should not be caught in the crossfire after getting identified as trouble-makers, the exuberance in the OPS group was energised by the TTV arrest that made this faction stronger at the negotiation table. The Sasikala clan and their sympathisers in the party and the government have 122 MLAs of the total 134 AIADMK legislators in the House of 234, leaving a mere 11 in the OPS camp, including him. But then, not many of those 122 are sleeping well these days, say insiders. “Quite a number of them are now worried if their Koovathur revelry has got into some probe dossiers of taxmen or CBI sleuths”, says a party senior.   
There’s a general feeling that OPS has the sympathy - if not the blessing — of PM Modi and the other camp of Chinnamma his wrath.

“The PM, we hear, was livid when his emissary Venkaiah Naidu informed him that Chinnamma did not accept to the suggestion that she should wait till the Supreme Court pronounced the verdict in the Disproportionate Assets case and instead, pushed her ambition to become the party general secretary as a precursor to taking over as Chief Minister from OPS,” recalled a source, adding, “OPS has all his (Modi’s) sympathy and support because he played by the rulebook and ended up being trampled by her”.