Chennai:

AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Sunday hinted the party would not take back expelled leader O Panneersevlam (OPS), days after the latter said he was willing to return to the party fold.

In a letter to party cadres ahead of late Chief Minister J Jayaylalithaa’s 77th birth anniversary on Monday, he asked if “the wolf and sheep can co-exist?” “Can the wolf and sheep co-exist? Can weeds and crops be part of a harvest? Can the loyalist and traitor stand shoulder-to-shoulder? I hear your assertive no,” he said.

The remarks are seen as a veiled response to OPS.

Days ago, former Chief Minister Panneerselvam had said he was willing to return to the AIADMK but insisted that the all-powerful general secretary post in the party should be elected by cadres.

“I, TTV Dinakaran and Sasikala (who were also expelled from the AIADMK) are ready to unite with the AIADMK without any conditions. We can sort out the issues through talks,” Panneerselvam, who now heads the ADMK Workers’ Rights’ Retrieval Committee, had said.

Mr Palaniswami, attacking the MK Stalin-led Tamil Nadu government over a number of issues including women’s safety, said people were unhappy with the ruling dispensation and yearned for the AIADMK to come back to power, after the Assembly polls due next year.

The former CM also hailed Jayalalithaa for delivering effective governance despite a number of challenges, including the financial one which he said was created by the then Congress-led UPA government at the Centre in which the DMK was an integral part.

Jayalalithaa led the AIADMK to power in 2011 with a massive majority, and again in 2016, and led the government till her death in December that year. The AIADMK was in power for 10 years between 2011-2021, a rare feat in Tamil Nadu’s political history.

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