Chennai: Thevar outfits urge O Panneerselvam, V K Sasikala to join hands to reclaim AIADMK

CHENNAI: Caste politics has returned to churn AIADMK as more than 100 thevar outfits spread across Tamil Nadu's southern districts have rallied behind expelled leader O Panneerselvam and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa's aide V K Sasikala to put up a joint fight to regain control over the party. About 50 thevar leaders, each representing multiple organisations, affixed their signatures on a 'secret' letter to OPS and Sasikala, urging them to team up to retrieve the party. "This is a request by a community that gave the AIADMK and its leadership their life," they said in the letter handed over to the two leaders about two weeks ago.
"You have the responsibility of joining hands as the general secretary and coordinator and capture the party," the letter said, adding, "Jayalalithaa's sister born from another mother, and her most-trusted cadre like 'Bharatha' to Rama should come together and fulfil the wishes of the one-and-a-half crore cadres".
'OPS expulsion insult to community'
While traditionally thevars have backed the AIADMK, the community maintained a low profile for four years with the AIADMK's interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, a vellalar gounder, helming the state administration as chief minister after Jayalalithaa's death in December 2016. The presence of Sasikala, who hails from the kallar community, a thevar sub-sect, in the political and administrative scheme of things during Jayalalithaa's tenures, gave the community considerable heft. OPS hails from the marawar community, another thevar sub-sect.
"The expulsion of OPS and the manner in which he was humiliated at the (June 23) general council meeting, is a direct insult to the community," said Thevarina Kootamaippu coordinator M Alagarsamy, one of the signatories to the letter. "There is a need to defeat the rival by openly displaying the colours of caste. Our rivals are trying to destroy us by using our own traitors (referring to the thevar leaders who have teamed up with EPS)," said the leaders in the letter.
Calling it a letter written with "an open mind", the thevar leaders said, "The charge against you is that both of you are operating as one in politics. Make it come true. Let the hands of both of you unite for the welfare of the party and community as it is the need of the hour".
Urging OPS and Sasikala to seek refuge at Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar memorial, Marudhupandiar and Rajaraja Chola memorials, the leaders of the various thevar outfits said, "Nobody can come as your competitor here. From Nagapattinam to Tirunelveli, Coimbatore to Vellore, let your long campaign begin".
The letter said, "Keep in mind that this is a community which continues to keep its fighting spirit alive from Perungamanallur (massacre in 1916 in which 16 people from the piramalai kallar community were killed during a protest against the Criminal Tribes Act 1911) to Kallakurichi (where violence erupted in a private school following the suicide of a class XII girl)".