When the warring factions of Edappadi Palanisamy and O Panneerselvam did not keep their appointed time of 12 noon at the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai to announce their merger, an MLA from the OPS faction sent me this message : “Lot of crossfire. Nothing decided as yet !”
The message summed up, in a nutshell, the acrimonious hard bargaining that has characterised this political marriage of convenience, coming at the end of six months of separation. The sudden flashpoint just before noon was over the expulsion of Sasikala.
EPS reportedly expressed his inability to expel Sasikala, since she had been elected as interim general secretary by the General Council in December. At best, the CM was willing to give a letter stating the General Council would soon meet to take the decision to distance the party from Sasikala. OPS was not willing to return, trusting Palanisamy 's letter.