Ideals of MGR & Jayalalithaa need to be kept alive: OPS, Sasikala to party cadres

Chennai: AIADMK expelled leaders O. Panneerselvam and V.K. Sasikala on Thursday wrote to the party cadres and asked them that there is a need to keep the ideals of M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) and Jayalalithaa alive.

“If the course correction is not done now, then AIADMK will become irrelevant. We should not allow the ideals of MGR and Jayalalithaa to fade away. Their ideals need to be kept alive. The legacy of these iconic Dravidian leaders would be lost if the course correction is not done immediately,” Sasikala said.

Notably, AIADMK has faced a debacle in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and finished up in third place in some seats of the state behind the BJP and Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK).

“Unity of the party is the need of the hour. Without the unity, the party will be doomed,” both the expelled leaders wrote in two separate letters, addressed to the party cadre.

The senior AIADMK heavyweights have told the present party leadership that they are open to discussion for the betterment of the party.

Interestingly, the party workers had openly come out and asked the present leadership to bring back OPS and Sasikala so that a unified fight is put against the DMK.

“AIADMK is important above all and I am prepared for any discussions with the present leadership,” OPS wrote in the letter.

OPS along with his associates were expelled from the party in July 2022 during the party state council meeting in Chennai. He is the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu and was the co-ordinator of AIADMK.

Sasikala, who was the interim General Secretary, was also expelled from the party in September 2017. She was a close aide of former Chief Minister late J. Jayalalithaa and also wielded extra-constitutional powers in the party.

OPS and Sasikala belong to the powerful Thevar community of Tamil Nadu which has been a traditional support base of the AIADMK. Following their expulsion, the Thevar community has shied away from the AIADMK.

Following the election debacle, people close to AIADMK say that there needs to be a compromise with the expelled leaders including TTV Dhinakaran so that the fortunes of the party rise again.