Sasikala In Huddle, Panneerselvam Not Backing Down | Read

With his visit to mentor J Jayalalithaa's beach-side memorial last night, O Panneerselvam made an important political statement. He followed that with an important political statement - that he was coerced and humiliated into resigning as Chief Minister, and that if the cadre wants, he will withdraw that resignation. Today, he proclaimed that he will prove himself as the rightful head of state by taking a trust vote. With that, the 66-year-old, whose career highs came from doing as he was told, made it clear that he's going off script and will try to split the ruling AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. To highlight that he is mistaken and in a minority, VK Sasikala, who is meant to replace him as Chief Minister is taking a number of steps today, including a visit of her own to Ms Jayalalithaa's grave, a landmark on Marina Beach.