Hurt by Sitharaman snub, OPS offered to resign

Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, who is also the AIADMK coordinator, has been so deeply wounded by a recent snub from Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that he was about to resign from his post.

Sources said that OPS  turned emotional on Thursday evening while addressing the closed door meeting of his party executive held at Chennai. “The recent snubbing by Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman when I went to meet her in New Delhi recently should be seen an insult not only to me but also to the 1.2 crore AIADMK cadre,” said Panneerselvam while making the concluding remarks at the executive committee meeting.

Panneerselvam had gone to New Delhi to personally thank the Defence Minister who had reportedly made available to the former a Service helicopter for airlifting his ailing brother to a corporate hospital from Madurai. But Sitharaman did not meet the Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister though she gave an audience to other AIADMK leader Dr V Maythreyan. Panneerselvam even went to the extent of offering his resignation from the Council of Ministers to strengthen the party, sources said.

While Sitharaman cold-shouldered OPS, BJP President  Amit Shah has decided to attend a memorial meeting for  DMK's late president M Karunanidhi on August 30 at Chennai. This is seen as BJP's attempt to keep a channel open with the DMK, much to displeasure of the AIADMK.

 The DMK had kept out both the BJP and the AIADMK from the 75th anniversary functions of Murasoli, the party's mouthpiece, held in August 2017.

The memorial meeting for Karunandhi would see the who’s who of Indian political landscape sans the AIADMK landing at Chennai to pay homage to the late leader.  Other leaders who have confirmed their participation in the meeting are senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Prime Minister Deve Gowda, former J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and a galaxy of other political stars including Derrick O'brien, the Trinamool Congress leader. The notable absentee would be Rahul Gandhi, the Congress chief.

"This is an apolitical meeting and there is no need to read too much into the coming together of all these leaders. We have invited all leaders who had interacted with Dr Kalaignar in his long spanning political career,"  said TKS Elangovan, DMK spokesman.

R Rangaraj, a veteran commentator, said he does not foresee any major changes in the immediate future. "Both the DMK and the BJP may keep their post poll options open though the latter may be eyeing the DMK," said Rangaraj. 

Vijayakanth, who heads the DMDK which was an ally of the NDA during the 2014 Lok Sabha election declared on Friday that his party would go it alone in the next Lok Sabha election