 Hello and let's talk about the developments within the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu. Earlier this week, it has formally announced that Chief Minister Adapati Parni Swami, who is known as EPS, will be the Chief Ministerial candidate for the party in the coming elections as well. This is the culmination of a nearly three-year-long power struggle in the party, which is nowhere close to getting settled. The other key player in the drama is, of course, Deputy Chief Minister O Parni Selvam who is known as OPS. OPS is a former Chief Minister and succeeded to the post immediately after the death of AIADMK's Supremo Jailalitha. But in the dramatic months following her death, he revolted against the new leader of the party VK Shashikala, who made sure that EPS became the new Chief Minister. Later, EPS and OPS joined forces and expelled Shashikala who was then in prison in a disproportionate assets case. Ever since there has been a power struggle raging in the party, and over the years EPS, the current Chief Minister, has gotten the upper hand. Meanwhile, the BJP has been playing its own games to make sure that the ADMK aligns with it, which can give it an opening in the state. It's in this context that the announcement of the Chief Minister's Candidate is significant. A steering committee has also been formed with 11 leaders, which is a long-time OPS demand. But for now, he seems to have been left with few cards. We've talked to News Clicks Nilambaran on what's happening in the AIADMK. Thank you, Nilambaran, for joining us. So first of all, finally, the ADMK, after a lot of internal dissension, after a lot of internal strife, to say the least, has finally chosen Arapane Paraniswamy as their Chief Ministerial Candidate. Opanir Selvamu is the former Deputy Chief Minister, as well as a key power center in the party, looks to have tried his best to emerge as a choice, but has failed. And in return, they have set up an 11-member steering committee as well. So could you explain the context in which Paraniswamy was known as EPS, became the Chief Ministerial Candidate of the AIADMK? So the story goes back after the sudden demise of the former Chief Minister, Jairan Lita. So after he was hospitalized for a long time, Paraniswamy was made as the Chief Minister, his third term. In previous years also, he has been made Chief Minister when Jairan Lita was not able to occupy the position. So all of a sudden, something turned up after Jairan Lita passed away. OPS was asked to resign and Paraniswamy was made the Chief Minister. So the then General Secretary, Sasikullah backing him. So what has happened is, he voted even against the government, against the will, and that this qualification case is still pending. And after three years, in 2017, when these two factions merged, so the demand of OPS was that 11 member steering committee must be formed to take care of the MS of the party. It has only flutified now. And again, in this steering committee, there are, you know, the balance is not that good. It is not in favor of OPS also. He has lost the race to the post of the Chief Ministerial Candidate as well. So a lot of women has been included. No Muslim representation is there in the steering committee. A lot of senior leaders have also been left out. So this cannot also be called as a victory for OPS, but totally the balance are shifted in favor of the party Paraniswamy, the President-Chief Minister. So we cannot say that the problem is solved for now. I mean, it can be said that it is solved for now, but the dissent will definitely rise again. Right, absolutely. And this context is interesting to see how EPS, who was not a major player pre-2017, has suddenly kind of emerged as the strong person inside the ADMK. So OPS, we do know, was a confidante of Jaililitha, like you said, he was Chief Minister at various points when she was facing cases and stuff like that. But EPS, who was maybe even propped up at some point as almost as a dummy candidate, has now suddenly become the force within the party. So how did that happen? So we have to consider the communal equations here. So OPS belongs to the Mukulathur community, which is a traditional supporter of the ADMK. He belongs to the southern part of the state. Whereas EPS belongs to the counter community, which is another strong support base of the ADMK. He belongs to the western part. So when OPS, something has, which we do not know for obvious reasons, because OPS was shunted out of office. And the EPS was a silent choice. He has been elected as a MLA for three terms and he was a member of parliament once. Not much was known about him until 2017. So he came up all of a sudden. But after he came to power, his influence has grown by a huge amount, we can say. He has taken the control over the party and that he has an advantage when compared to OPS. Because when OPS was chief minister, he was controlled by either Jailalithya or led by Sasikala. Now Sasikala is out of the party and Jailalithya is no more. EPS had the comfort of acting independently, which has played in his favor. So that is how he has come to the limelight, which many ministers have also backed him. So this is how he has emerged over the period of the last three years. And it is quite a surprise for many of the political observers here as well. And this context you mentioned, Sasikala, she was in jail. She said to be released soon. And there's a lot of talk of her supporters who are led by TTV Dinakar and now and the ADMK maybe having discussions and negotiations to see if it makes sense to merge. So what do you think is happening there? As far as the ADMK is concerned, we cannot move in. Because OPS who came out and revolted, went back and joined the ADMK. TTV Dinakar and Sasikala's nephew, who was a role to reckon with, was out of the party. He was thrown out of the party and he won an election to the assembly. But his candidates, his party, couldn't do much in the by elections as well as the general parliamentary elections. So now that we hear that he has flown to Delhi to meet the BJP talk leadership, we were told. And discussions were taking place regarding the release of Sasikala in January 2021. So we cannot rule out anything. OPS is definitely disappointed and many leaders of ADMK are disappointed with the steering committee as well. So we cannot rule out any further change of balances. Anything can happen. That is what we have seen from the history of ADMK in the past three, four years. Absolutely. And maybe finally, a couple of questions. One, what role is the BJP playing? Are they, is the BJP-ADMK alliance likely to be a certainty in the coming elections or are they still, is it still uncertain by now? We have to consider the 2019 case here, if you want to speak about the alliance. BJP was nowhere close to ADMK just before the elections in 2019 May. All of a sudden, the alliance came up, you know, it was snitch, we can call it a stitched up alliance. And before that, ADMK was supporting BJP in all possible forms in the Rajasabha to get key bills passed that apart. And here again, ADMK is now feeling that BJP is a burden to them in the assembly elections as well. Because when you compare the previous election results, ADMK got competitive elections in Tamil Nadu. And ADMK could manage only one seat from the state. But in the by elections to the assembly, ADMK won a victory and secured the mandate and the majority in the assembly. So that itself was a lesson for ADMK that BJP is burden to them. So we cannot rule out again, I insist, we cannot rule out what may transfer. But BJP is ready to ally with ADMK because they have no other considerable vote base in Tamil Nadu except for a few districts here. So BJP definitely want to have an alliance with ADMK, but ADMK may not take the same stance as of now. Absolutely. And finally, Nilavaraj is still very early to say, of course, and it's a very difficult task. But how do the prospects of the ADMK and the DMK look right now when it comes to the assembly elections? Yeah, actually, the elections are due, the current tenure of the assembly ends only in May 16, 2021. So no party has won three consecutive elections since 1984. The Indian National Congress won till 1962 for three consecutive terms. The late ADMK leader, MG Ramachandran won three elections in 77, 80 and 84. Apart from post-1984, no party has won three successive elections. And the election, the electoral victory in 2016 was also a surprise for ADMK because nobody expected ADMK to come back to power. But even the present situation and the kind of approach ADMK government is adopting to lot of issues. They are definitely staring at a strong anti-incomeancy wave. And with the alliance arithmetic favouring the DMK, we can put our weight behind DMK as of now. Thank you so much, Nilavaraj, for talking to us. Our next story is a segment about COVID-19 in British universities. There has been a spike in cases in recent times, putting students in a very difficult position. We bring you part of an interview with activists of the Young Communist League of the United Kingdom on the developments there. Thank you so much for joining us. So the first thing I wanted to ask was, could you first talk right now about what's happening in some of the major universities, especially where a lot of cases are being recorded, we've seen universities reporting hundreds of cases, 200, 400, etc. So could you talk about what's happening on the ground right now, what are the students feeling, what's happening? From what I know is that a lot of the students who have gone into halls have basically been trapped there with people who have tested positive, which then will spread it to them and you're right, the numbers are up in the hundreds. I think Sheffield has recently reported 800 cases, like in the last, I think they've been open for two, three weeks. They've been not allowed to go out, they're not allowed to use the washing machines that are in the buildings that they're in and they are having no financial support either from the unions or the government. Yeah, just to go off of that point, two major hotspots for the outbreaks have been Scotland and Manchester and as you say Sheffield more recently, Scotland as they have separate government ministers, they have taken a slightly different approach and no students have been allowed out in bars and pubs and all, I believe all of the university halls that have coronavirus outbreaks are being locked down and those students might not even face the threat of not even being allowed to go home for Christmas. So quite a horrible threat, you know, say in Manchester, I know people that have got the virus from universities in Manchester and it's these urban areas that the virus has been allowed to spread through government negligence and possibly, I don't know if we're going to talk about this later, but possibly the reasoning just being towards appeasing the landlords and the student accommodation providers who want the rent from the students. Absolutely. Yeah, that is a definitely important issue we'll come to, but first of all, maybe go a bit back and talk about the reopening itself. So could you talk a bit about the context in which the universities have classes to reopen, that is physical classes to reopen? What was the YCL's position then on the issue and what were the kinds of necessary precautions taken? We'll talk a bit about that. So yes, the government was adamant that the schools and universities were going back and it was sort of given the impression at first that, oh, it'd be online, but perhaps maybe we'd get some sort of face-to-face learning so that there was a reasoning why these students would want to come back to campus. But as soon as students are back on campus, it's been all online learning. From my experience, I'm not sure about Rosie's, but for most students across universities in the UK, it's been all online learning, which is the appropriate thing to do, absolutely. But did it need university students to be moving to halls for this? I'm not so sure, but yeah, certainly the approach to online learning has been a good one. It's certainly a decrease in the quality of learning that we've had in previous years. It's been face-to-face. It's just not the same. We're not paying for the same quality of teaching and this needs to be recognised as well. Just to go off what Jess said there with the online learning, obviously it is the best thing that we can have at the moment. It is brilliant, but there is so much inaccessibility with it as well because there are a lot of students who, the university will say, well, my university has given a statement of you must have at least a computer, at least this software and this and that. And for me, it's that the people dropping out of my course and out of uni because they just can't, they don't have the financial ability to be able to get those materials for it. That's all we have time for today. We'll be back tomorrow with more news from the country and the world. Until then, keep watching NewsClick.