Tamil Nadu: OPS group keen on government survival

Chennai: “Ours is a sahodara sandai (fraternal fight) and even as we carry this out for getting the government on the right track, we will never yield space for the enemy (DMK)”. That was former minister S. Semmalai, a senior member of the OPS faction of the AIADMK.

Asked to comment on the rival DMK’s expectation that the Edappadi Government would collapse anytime due to the split in the AIADMK and various other internal pressures, Semmalai was forthright in denouncing the Opposition’s assessment as “empty, futile day-dreaming” and insisted, “We are all even now part of the ruling party, even if we appear to have split”.

While their fight would continue until an agreement is reached on the “basic principles of honest politics”, the brothers would never let the enemy (DMK) gain from the exchange of fire. “We will remain within the fold and carry on this battle for ensuring that the party and the government are put on the right track”,  told this correspondent, even as several others among the 11-member OPS team agreed with him.

“Just wait, everything will be fine amongst us (brothers)”, said the AIADMK senior in a chat during a short break in the stormy Assembly session that saw the DMK legislators, led by their working president M.K. Stalin, being expelled after they waved placards that read, ‘MLAs for Sale’ and raised the recent TV sting on alleged payoffs for support during the EPS’s trust vote. The DMK men, and women, appeared upbeat and robustly confident their day is just round the corner as they believe that the EPS Government has been cornered beyond escape.

“This Government of horse-traders must be dismissed. CBI must probe this horse-trading”, thundered Stalin, when reporters and cameras surrounded him as he emerged from the marriage hall where he was detained along with party MLAs and supporters after staging road-roko following the Assembly eviction. And he promised, “We will raise this same issue tomorrow also”.

Clearly, Thalapathi and his army smell blood in this new scandal that has erupted amid the ruling party. Even as the AIADMK leaders are trying to play down the ‘sting’ impact and leaving the two protagonists in the videos to play out their stout denials, the ‘enemy’ has grabbed the issue as his big missile to ‘demolish’ the regime.

Not a day passes without their saying this Government is on its way out. To recall one most recent instance, Stalin, at an Iftar party last Friday: “Wherever I go, be it an airport, train journey, cinema theatre, even the beach, people are asking me when I will change this government. I promise the position would have certainly changed by this time next year”.