Former Chief Minister and coordinator of the ADMK Workers’ Rights Retrieval Committee coordinator, O. Panneerselvam, met senior BJP leader and Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Calling his meeting a ‘courtesy call,’ Mr Panneerselvam told reporters at Chennai airport that he had discussed the political situation in the State with Mr Shah. He did not elaborate further. He did not respond to a question whether the meeting touched upon the Tamila Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) led by actor Vijay.
This was the first meeting that Mr Panneerselvam had with Mr Shah, after he announced in July that he quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). When the news was out on Tuesday that the former Chief Minister was in New Delhi, this created a political buzz. It was speculated whether he had gone there to negotiate the terms of his return to the BJP’s fold and how he would do it, given the fact that he and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami had not patched up as yet, after the break in July 2022 when he was expelled from the party. Mr Palaniswami has been reiterating tht there is no scope for reconciliation with his former colleague. Besides, when Shah announced the revival of ties between the BJP and the AIADMK in April, he made it clear that his party would not like to “interfere in the internal affairs” of the Dravidian party.
