Chennai, March 4 : AIADMK Organising Secretary and former minister, D. Jayakumar, has alleged that the deposed Coordinator of the party, O. Panneerselvam (OPS), had mortgaged the party and surrendered it to the DMK. He was reacting to the statement of OPS against the AIADMK Interim General Secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) on the party's defeat in the Erode East bypolls. Jayakumar said that OPS had voted against the AIADMK government during the trust vote in 2017 and even after that EPS made him Deputy Chief Minister as well as Coordinator of the party. The former Minister alleged that EPS has however taken measures to protect the party after he realised that OPS had surrendered to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. He also said that OPS was a 'paper tiger' and added that the former AIADMK Coordinator was in an imaginary world and that he believed that the party would be strengthened only by joining hands with persons like former Interim General Secretary, V.K. Sasikala. He said that Panneerselvam had made allegations against her in the past. Jayakumar said that Palaniswami had never spoken ill of the former Coordinator and added that EPS was devoting himself to the task of safeguarding the party. /IANS