O Panneerselvam would have realised during his marathon, inconclusive meeting with his team on the rainy Friday evening in Chennai that it is much easier to launch a dharma yuddham than to call it off. Despite talk of a rapprochement round the corner, in the end, the much-awaited screening of ‘Dial M for Merger’ did not take place. Even though the Jayalalithaa memorial at the Marina was decked up in anticipation of Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami and Panneerselvam turning up to signal new-found unity, the OPS camp played truant. The rebel group failed to arrive at a conclusion on whether to merge with the ruling faction or not.

What is clear is that the OPS faction consisting of 10 MLAs and 12 MPs and many have-beens with a ‘former minister’ tag, is a divided house over the merger. The non-MLAs, in particular, are not excited about the prospect of a homecoming. They point to Palaniswami’s reluctance to commit himself to declaring VK Sasikala persona non grata. Given that the revolt against Sasikala was the primary reason for Panneerselvam’s exit from the AIADMK in February, they argue a return without the primary condition being met, made no political sense.

The group has a valid point but Panneerselvam has more practical issues to take care of. On Thursday, EPS surprised him by agreeing to two of his demands – to declare Veda Nilayam a Jayalalithaa memorial and order a judicial probe into the former chief minister’s death. Even before OPS could react, former Education minister K Pandiarajan, the only sitting minister to cross over to Panneerselvam’s side in February, welcomed it and predicted a merger was just round the corner.

OPS knew he was falling into a trap. It was a clear signal that should he still fuss over not dissolving his rebel shop, there will be desertions. After six months in the political wilderness, some of the legislators find the carrot too tempting to resist.

While the argument over the expulsion of Sasikala is a valid one, it is only a mask for the I, Me, Myself syndrome that has afflicted the OPS camp. Sources say many of the senior leaders like V Maitreyan, Manoj Pandian, KP Munusamy, Natham Vishwanathan, fear losing their clout in a unified AIADMK. They want their interests to be protected before signing on the dotted line. While the MPs among them are hoping for space in the NDA government at the Centre, the MLAs who know they cannot become ministers are looking to be rewarded with posts of chairpersons of corporations in Tamil Nadu.

But this jostling for power is being done in the garb of protecting Panneerselvam’s interests. His team has told him he will come out looking like a power-hungry politician if he agrees to become Deputy CM in Palaniswami’s cabinet after having been a three-time chief minister. So they want EPS to make way for OPS. And even though OPS will head the party, he will not get the powerful post of general secretary that Jayalalithaa occupied so long as the dispute is pending before the Election Commission. The title of a party coordinator, it is argued, hardly sounds pompous enough. Team OPS also wants a majority of the posts on the committee that will be formed to help OPS run the party, to go to it.

The portfolios on offer are another roadblock. While PWD has been offered to OPS to go along with his post of Deputy CM, his team has demanded either Home or Finance as well. EPS is reluctant to give up Home while Finance is with D Jayakumar, who is one of the prominent faces of the cabinet now.

Team EPS thinks OPS is being greedy and says the question of EPS stepping down does not arise. It has even shot down the proposal of a rotational chief ministership for the remaining part of the term, with the post changing between the two leaders every six months. It points to the numbers and asks if a group of 10 legislators can dictate terms to a group of 123. The caste equation also comes into play as EPS belongs to the Gounder community while OPS is a Thevar. The EPS vs OPS battle is also one of caste one-upmanship within the AIADMK. As far as distancing himself from Sasikala is concerned, EPS knows the move is fraught with risk as it could upset some of the Mannargudi family loyalists who are sailing with him, because of power and reluctance to face an election.

In the last six months, OPS has projected himself as the Mr Clean of Tamil Nadu politics, while labelling all those on the other side as tainted by the Koovuthur resort drama that played out in February. It is a rather hollow argument that delinking themselves from TTV Dhinakaran automatically gifts the EPS camp with stain-free veshtis. At the end of the day, it is a marriage of political convenience, with band aid being used to stitch together deep wounds in the AIADMK body.

But with EPS playing his cards smartly and coming across as a leader willing to go the extra mile, OPS is in a swim or sink position. He would also be wary of stretching things too far for fear of offending the third umpire in New Delhi who has been rather keen that the EPS vs OPS match is not washed out in Chennai and produces a favourable result.

Since the BJP is keen on the merger, the visit of party president Amit Shah to Tamil Nadu on August 22 is being taken as a deadline for the realignment to take place. OPS has now indicated that “good news” will be given in a couple of days. This would mean that the OPS camp will have to either water down its demands or convince the EPS group to be generous. Indications are that work is on to ensure the political interests of all movers and shakers in the OPS faction are taken care of.

The Tamil version of Bigg Boss is a huge hit in Tamil Nadu. What is playing out is a political version of the reality show, with Team OPS failing in the task assigned to it on Friday. The weekend is when Bigg Boss host actor Kamal Haasan arrives to admonish those who don’t play by the rules. In the real world too, it won’t be long before Bigg Boss calls the group into the confession room to read out the riot act.