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EPS Finds His GPS
Outlook
|November 11, 2019
With decisive victories in the TN by-elections, the ‘accidental CM’ has proved naysayers wrong
EPS for chief minister in 2021—the slogan is ringing out loud and clear from the ranks of the AIADMK after the ruling party won two assembly by-elections held on October 21. Significantly, they managed to wrest the seats—Vikravandi and Nanguneri—from the DMK and the Congress respectively with margins of more than 30,000 votes.
The crushing win has boosted the chances of Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS), a lastminute unlikely choice as chief minister handpicked by Sasikala Natarajan in February 2017, to lead the AIADMK’s bid to retain power in the 2021 assembly elections. Described as diffident, not very articulate and lacking the charisma of Jayalalitha or even AIADMK rebel, T.T.V. Dhinakaran, EPS was more of a workhorse politician when he was suddenly anointed chief minister.
This story is from the November 11, 2019 edition of Outlook.
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