By joining the DMK, former Chief Minister and coordinator of the AIADMK, O. Panneerselvam, has followed the path taken by a host of leaders of his parent party. However, the similarity ends there, as no one else has been a three-time Chief Minister.
Since Nanjil K. Manoharan, the first Finance Minister of the AIADMK government during 1977-80, there has been a long line of prominent leaders – including S. Raghavanandam and P.U. Shanmugam – who have returned to the DMK. After all, this crop of leaders had cut their teeth in the 76-year-old Dravidian major. Many of the Ministers in the present DMK regime, such as K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, S. Muthusamy, S. Regupathy, R.S. Rajakannappan, and E.V. Velu, left the AIADMK on different occasions as they could not accept the leadership of Jayalalithaa for one reason or another. Post-Jayalalithaa, younger AIADMK leaders – V. Senthil Balaji, P. Palaniappan, and Thanga Tamilselvan, once considered a bete noire of Mr. Panneerselvam, as both hail from Theni district – gravitated towards the DMK. Between August 2025 and January 2026, prominent figures from the Panneerselvam camp in the AIADMK – V. Maitreyan, P.H. Manoj Pandian, and R. Vaithilingam – also followed suit.
