A battle neither Edappadi K Palaniswami nor O Panneerselvam lost

In the end, no one lost as both chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and deputy CM O Panneerselvam had their way. But the road ahead is still bumpy.
While it was a foregone conclusion that it will be EPS, who will be named the party’s chief minister candidate, the latest round of political tussle helped him to get the party to reiterate that position unequivocally. The fact that he had to indulge in lot of political maneuvering to get it showed he is no super power in the league of party founder M G Raamchandran and his successor J Jayalalithaa, though he too gets to seek another term.
OPS must be a happy man too, having got the 11-member committee as a face saver. Beyond preventing him from undertaking yet another ‘Dharmayudh’, it offers very little leverage for OPS. He has been denied any additional power or authority, including becoming the sole signatory over party affairs, as it was strenuously gossiped during the past week. Not to speak about his nominees, barring two, who pale into insignificance against EPS’s generals on the committee.
The fact that former MP V Maitreyan, who was the first to support him in his Dharmayudh against V K Sasikala and her clan, does not figure in the list, which a party leader termed as a ‘pseudo committee’, could trouble his support group.
But EPS seems to have gained in confidence in deftly handling the political crisis, with enough experience in heralding his government to sustain nearly four years of political turbulence, from within as well as from outside. As the crisis ballooned, EPS stayed put in Chennai, nonchalantly going about his chief ministerial tasks, and exuding confidence about working out an amicable solution soon.
Amidst the crisis, OPS left for Theni, perhaps thinking he would make the task more difficult for the mediators. But he had to make a hasty retreat, to be seen as the most wanted during the protracted negotiation process that dragged on till the early hours of Wednesday, the deadline for the big announcement.
With the path cleared, EPS is now free to project himself the way he wants – as the common man-CM or simply a farmer-CM. Having slipped his way through the power centre at a crucial time when both the party and the government were in crisis, EPS has outsmarted many.
For him, the real test is still ahead. With EPS now the CM candidate, it will pitchfork him into a direct battle with DMK president M K Stalin. The battle is sure to turn bitter. People who were willing to discount the misdemeanors of his governance so far, assuming him to be an also-ran, will sharpen their attacks.
“The burden has increased for EPS. Cadres celebrating him being named the CM candidate as an electoral victory could lead to complacency. Besides, the anti-incumbency factor will come to the fore since he was already ruling for four years,” said an AIADMK insider. The electoral verdict is still seven months away.