Chennai, 13/7: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had negotiated quite a few truce pacts in the post-J Jayalalithaa AIADMK, has stayed away from interfering or taking sides in the latest round of power struggle between Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam for the control of the Dravidian party.
Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai, a Karnataka-cadre IPS officer before he took voluntary retirement from service in 2019, spoke to Palaniswami and congratulated him on his appointment as interim general secretary of the AIADMK on Monday. However, Annamalai and the BJP refrained from announcing this in the public — it is interpreted as the saffron party’s way of keeping EPS happy by congratulating him on his new appointment, while not completely dumping OPS and giving him some hope.
Ever since the chorus for “unitary leadership” grew louder in the AIADMK on June 14 and ending on July 11 with the culmination of EPS’ ascension and OPS’ expulsion from the party, the BJP has remained “neutral”.