O. Panneerselvam’s online outreach has so far mirrored his rebellion: there were few leaders and it was left to the public to offer support. However, under some expelled members of the AIADMK’s IT Wing, disparate online efforts are now being made under the same roof.
On Friday night, the team headed by former IT Wing Secretary Singai G. Ramachandran took control of wesupportops.in, which was started by a student in Salem. Mr. Ramachandran said the facebook.com/WESUPPORTOPS page too, started by an outsider, a youngster based out of the United States, was handed over to Mr. Panneerselvam’s team.
The team, which also operates the @OfficeofOPS handle, is now attempting to obtain Twitter’s blue tick, indicating verification. On February 24, Mr. Panneerselvam used Periscope for Twitter extensively during public events to mark Jayalalithaa’s 69th birthday. Mr. Ramachandran said Mr. Panneerselvam’s upcoming trip across the state to garner support for his bid to dislodge V.K. Sasikala would be a “digital tour.”
“There has been overwhelming support. We are now connecting the dots...Yesterday, about 50 volunteers met Mr. OPS and offered their support to run an Information Technology Wing. Therefore, we have now launched a ‘We Support OPS’ campaign together,” said Mr. Ramachandran.
He said that the website had recorded a lakh registrations before being handed over to his team and added that about 30,000 individuals have registered since. At the time of going to press, an I Support OPS button on top of the homepage showed 1,00,900 registrations.
The page allows users to join the #WeSupportOPS online campaign either as a supporter or a volunteer. It urges people who can design web pages, write content in Tamil and English, can create animations and edit videos to join their ‘movement’.
A brief introduction titled, ‘From a Teashop Owner to the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu’ focusses on Mr. Panneerselvam’s humble beginnings. This, along with the former CM’s efforts to bring back jallikattu and loyalty to Jayalalithaa are among the main points highlighted by the website.
Allegation denied
Mr. Panneerselvam’s IT Team has also been criticised by Ms. Sasikala’s supporters, who allege they are behind abusive calls to legislators. Mr. Ramachandran denied his team’s involvement, saying MLAs’ numbers are already in the public domain. He also said that had had handed over all login credentials to his replacement before exiting the IT Wing and had not walked away with data.
