O. Panneerselvam

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O. Paneerselvam (born 1951) is a former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. He is a soft spoken person by nature enjoys a good reputation in Theni-Madurai belt among the public. Prior to his entry to politics, he owned a tea shop which he still owns. He was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu in September 2001 after the appointment of then Chief Minister and AIADMK party chief J. Jayalalithaa was squashed by the Supreme Court of India. In March 2002, he resigned as Chief Minister and J. Jayalalithaa was sworn in after the Supreme Court overturned her conviction and sentence and she won a by-election from Andipatti assembly constituency. During his stint as Chief Minister, he was widely criticized of heading a puppet government which was closely micro-managed by J. Jayalalithaa.

After his resignation he became the Public Works Department minister in the Jayalalithaa government. O. Paneerselvam was the leader of the AIADMK legislative party and the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly for about two weeks, after the party lost the assembly elections in May 2006. After all the AIADMK legislators were suspended by the speaker of the house, Jayalalithaa who had decided not to attend the Legislative Assembly decided to return and replaced O. Paneerselvam as the Leader of the Opposition. [1] He has been twice elected to the Tamil Nadu assembly from Periyakulam constituency. His confidants affectionately call him with his initials as 'OP'. He is the only CM after Kamaraj and Bakthavatsalam era who has not faced any corruption charges and was commended as Mr. Clean even when he was a Minister even by his political opponents.