O Panneerselvam

Personal life

O. Panneerselvam was born to OttakkaraThevar and Palaniammal Nachiar on 14 January 1951 in Periyakulam, Tamil Nadu. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from HAJI KARUTHA ROWTHER HOWDIA COLLEGE in Uthamapalayam, Theni district.His close friend Salvunddin from Theni encouraged him into politics. He also owned some agricultural land. He is married to P. Vijayalakshmi and the couple has three children. He is currently elected from the constituency of Bodinayakkanur, which is located in Theni district. He is also known by his nickname, OPS.

Early political career

Paneerselvam started his political career as a worker of the then united DMK in 1969 at the age of 18. He started out as a young ground level party activist who worked at the booth level for municipal and legislative assembly elections, and worked his way up the Party. He joined the AIADMK in 1973 after M.G. Ramachandran split from the DMK and was among the first generations of party workers who split to found AIADMK and is thus a founding member. He became a Chairman of Periyakulam Municipality from 1996 to 2001.

First term as Chief Minister, 2001-2002

He was sworn in as the 13th Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in September 2001 when the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was barred from holding office by the Supreme Court of India. During his stint as Chief Minister, he was widely criticised for allegedly heading a puppet government managed by Jayalalithaa. His tenure lasted for six months, from 21 September 2001 to 1 March 2002. In March 2002, he resigned as Chief Minister and Jayalalithaa was sworn in again after the Supreme Court overturned her conviction and she won a by-election from Andipatti assembly constituency. From 2 March 2002 to 13 December 2003, he was the Minister for Public Works, Prohibition and Excise. Subsequently, he was also entrusted with the Revenue department's charge from 13 December 2003 to 2006.

Leader of the Opposition, 2006

After the party lost the assembly elections in May 2006, Panneerselvam was the leader of the AIADMK legislative party and the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for about two weeks. In that election, he was elected to be the member of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly from Periyakulam. After all the AIADMK legislators were suspended by the speaker of the house, Jayalalithaa, who had decided not to attend the Legislative Assembly, decided to return and replaced Panneerselvam as the Leader of the Opposition.

Second term as Chief Minister, 2014-2015

In 2011, he contested as an AIADMK candidate from the Bodinayakkanur Assembly constituency and won. Again, he became the Minister of Finance in Jayalalithaa's government and held the office from 16 May 2011 to 27 September 2014. He was again entrusted with the responsibility of being Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 29 September 2014 when Jayalalitha was convicted in the disproportionate assets case. On 22 May 2015, he resigned as Chief Minister and Jayalalithaa was sworn in again after the Karnataka High Court acquitted her in the disproportionate assets case on 11 May 2015.

A year after his resignation, on 23 May 2016, he was sworn in as Minister for Finance and Public Works Departments in Jayalalithaa's government.

Third term as Chief Minister, 2016-2017

On 6 December 2016, Panneerselvam was elected as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu following the death of Incumbent Chief Minister Jayalalithaa. On December 10 he held his first cabinet meeting as a full-term Chief Minister. He tended his resignation as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 6 February 2017 to the governor, who accepted and appointed him as the caretaker Chief Minister of the state to avoid a leadership vacuum, until further measures could be taken.. On 14 February 2017, he was expelled from the AIADMK by party general secretary V.K. Sasikala. Shortly after his expulsion, the Governor invited the newly elected legislative leader of the AIADMK, Edappadi K Palaniswami to form the government, following which he took over as chief minister on 16 February 2017.

Elections Contested and Results

New Party Symbol

After his exit from AIADMK Panneerselvam and his supporters appealed to the election commission to take action against the current chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and party General Secretary Sasikala. He also made a point to them that he needs the two leaf party symbol to contest in RK Nagar election. Also Edappadi K Palaniswami and supporters appealed against him, but the election commission rejected both the appeals and allotted two different symbols to each party.