A three-time stand-in Chief Minister who once refused to sit in Jayalalithaa’s chair and later lost his party, position, and much of his political capital after revolting against the AIADMK leadership, O Panneerselvam resurfaced on Friday, making an unlikely embrace.
At the DMK headquarters of Anna Arivalayam in Chennai, Panneerselvam, OPS to friends and rivals, formally joined the state’s ruling party in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin and senior DMK leaders in a bid for his political resurrection. The inducement was unmistakable. If the DMK returns to power in a few months, OPS will be its nominee for Assembly Speaker, sources said.
For a man who built his public life as an “Amma loyalist”, touching Jayalalithaa’s feet before taking oath in 2001 and twice handing back power to her without hesitation, the move marks a second life, and perhaps the last major turn, in a career defined by loyalty, patience, confusion, and miscalculations. It is also an improbable realignment in a state where memory runs deep.
Panneerselvam became the Chief Minister first in 2001, when Jayalalithaa stepped down following a court order in the TANSI case. He was then a first-time MLA. In 2014, after her conviction in the disproportionate assets case, he took over again. In 2016, as she was hospitalised, he was allocated the CM’s portfolios, though not the title.
In each instance, he described his elevation as a “gift of Amma”. Close aides often said after fulfilling his early dream of becoming chairman of Periyakulam Municipality in 1996, everything else — MLA, minister, CM — was a “bonus”.
For critics, he was a proxy. For allies, he was the most trusted and polite aide of Jayalalithaa. Even when he fell out of favour briefly in 2016 over allegations about his family’s growing clout, he apologised and retained his post. He was known among bureaucrats as shy, humble, and rarely intrusive in policy matters.
The DMK calculus
His instinct of loyalty shaped his fateful break. After Jayalalithaa died in 2016, OPS initially handed over power to V K Sasikala. But as she prepared to take the oath, he rebelled in a midnight sit-in at the Jayalalithaa memorial, refusing to step aside. That assertion of independence marked the beginning of his political decline for the next few years
Edappadi K Palaniswami consolidated control of the AIADMK. The BJP, which sought to manage the fractured Dravidian space, kept OPS in play, at times promising rehabilitation within the AIADMK. In 2024, he contested independently, with tacit encouragement from the BJP, but failed to regain relevance.
Even two days ago, according to one of his closest aides, there were assurances from an RSS ideologue that reconciliation might yet be engineered. It did not materialise. With the election approaching, Panneerselvam faces a narrowing field. Two doors were open: Vijay’s TVK, still untested, or the ruling DMK, led by a seasoned CM with a national profile.
Stalin’s offer — the Speaker’s post — was, for a former CM, both dignified and strategic. It avoids placing him in direct administrative competition while granting him constitutional stature. For OPS whose public persona has long been that of a presiding loyalist rather than an assertive executive, the role fits.
It also secures his home turf of Bodinayakkanur in Theni district that becomes a negotiated seat within a larger alliance. Along with him came key loyalists, including former MP O P Ravindranath Kumar, his son, and party figures such as Vaithilingam and Manoj Pandian, who had already drifted toward the DMK.
A senior DMK leader described the sequence bluntly: “First the employees joined. Now the CEO has joined.”
What OPS brings to the table
For the DMK, the gains are layered. OPS belongs to the Mukulathor, or Thevar, community — a powerful OBC bloc in southern Tamil Nadu. The DMK has historically struggled to make inroads in that belt, where the AIADMK and splinter formations hold influence. Deploying a three-time CM to campaign in the south, narrating his rupture with Palaniswami and his estrangement from Sasikala’s camp, offers both arithmetic and perception.
The DMK calculates constituency by constituency. Vaithilingam strengthens Orathanadu, Manoj Pandian signals Alamkulam, Panneerselvam secures Bodinayakkanur, and Iyyappan bolsters Usilampatti. In tight contests, these micro-alignments matter.
There is also symbolism. Bringing a former AIADMK CM into its ranks projects expansion. Since 2019, the DMK has positioned itself as the nucleus of a widening alliance. Panneerselvam adds heft and subtly checks allies such as the Congress, which has been pressing for more space.
Possibility of friction
Yet, the move carries the possibility of friction. In Bodinayakkanur and surrounding districts, local DMK cadre have battled Panneerselvam for decades. Leaders who fought him in successive elections must now accommodate him. Thanga Tamilchelvan, who left T T V Dhinakaran’s camp to join the DMK, could find himself edged out.
The DMK leadership has conveyed a stark message to district units: winning is the priority. Power, if secured, offers multiple centres of rehabilitation: local bodies, boards, and corporations. Without victory, there is nothing to distribute.
For OPS, the question is transformation. In 2014, when bureaucrats quietly ran the state while Jayalalithaa was in prison, observers described Tamil Nadu as operating on “autopilot.” Secretaries moved files, administrators sustained service delivery, and the CM was emotional but constrained. OPS was seen as safe, not commanding.
He is neither Jayalalithaa nor Sasikala, aides used to say. He is patient, does not complain, and waits. Now, he has chosen movement over waiting. Whether voters in southern Tamil Nadu, where OPS is going to be deployed for campaigns by DMK, see this as pragmatism or betrayal will shape the outcome. For the DMK, it is a calculated absorption, turning a rival’s veteran into an asset where margins are thin. For OPS, it is survival.
In a career where every promotion was once described as a bonus from Amma, for OPS, this could turn out to be the first elevation earned outside her shadow.