A day after the AIADMK faction led by O Panneerselvam held a marathon meeting at his residence, the former Chief Minister announced that talks on the merger were going smoothly. He further claimed that a decision will be made on the matter in a day or two.
This announcement coming after the Government agreed to two demands made by the OPS camp, hints at the factions under Panneerselvam and Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisami reuniting. This move comes even as efforts are underway to sideline the party's deputy general secretary TTV Dhinakaran. OPS further tweeted that the merger will be finalised as per the wishes of the party's cadre.
"Talks are going on smoothly and we will come to a decision in a day or two. The merger has to benefit Tamil Nadu and the party's cadre. There will be a good decision," the former Chief Minister told the media on Saturday.
This is a far cry from his statement earlier this month, where he dismissed all possibilities of the two factions coming together.
After five hours behind closed doors on Friday, no announcement was made regarding the matter. Leaders in the Panneerselvam camp failed to come to a consensus on becoming a part of the Government led by Edappadi Palanisami.
The reasons for this, according to reports, is that office bearers do not want to be associated to the corruption allegedly present in the current Government. The leaders in the OPS faction further demanded that the probe into former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's death be be assisted by the CBI.
One of the primary demands made by the OPS camp which was to remove Sasikala and her family members from the party is yet to be complied to. There have been open statements by the government dismissing TTV Dhinakaran's authority in the party, but they are yet to sideline General Secretary VK Sasikala.
Leaders like V Maithreyan, KP Munusamy, PH Pandian and Manoj Pandian insisted that VK Sasikala needs to be thrown out of the party. The two factions are still figuring out how to make O Panneerselvam in charge of the party and to officially oust Sasikala. According to sources, this may not happen immediately, but the factions will commit to ensuring that the ouster is done at the earliest.
Immediately after the Chief Minister's announcement on Thursday, where he agreed to set up an inquiry commission to look into former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's death and convert Veda Nilayam into a memorial, it became clear that he was angling at a merger.
While former minister Mafoi Pandiarajan tweeted that the move was welcome and used the hashtag 'UnitedAIADMK', V Maitreyan who was one of the first leaders to join OPS requested his colleagues to not jump to conclusions.