How BJP brokered EPS-OPS truce ahead of Erode bypoll - Hindustan Times

On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai while announcing the party’s decision to support Thennarasu called him the “legitimate candidate” and thanked OPS for “withdrawing in the interest of the two-leaves symbol and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)”.“We want to avoid the unnecessary confusion which may be caused by contesting under a new symbol just ahead of the 2024 parliamentary election,” read a statement from AMMK.Following this, on February 6, OPS supporter K P Krishnan called a press conference to announce that they are withdrawing their candidate for the “larger good” of the AIADMK’s two-leaves symbol to win.A leader from the EPS camp, who has led several legal tussles of the party, was confident that this would be “the last time that they will have to fight out a long process with OPS” since the ECI on February 6 cleared the decks for them to be allotted the two-leaves symbol for the bypoll.The BJP has already made it clear that the AIADMK will lead the NDA alliance in Tamil Nadu for the 2024 general elections and at present it is EPS who enjoys the brute majority in the party.SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON ABOUT THE AUTHOR Divya Chandrababu is an award-winning political and human rights journalist based in Chennai, India.