India News

AIADMK reunification looms on TN horizon

Published

9 years ago

April 18, 2017

AIADMK reunification looms on TN horizon

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]But it is too early to say that the proposal can go down without hiccups, and another split won’t happen a few months or years down the line

By Vikram Kilpady

The perils of being closely associated with someone as brazen with corruption as TTV Dinakaran is said to be the reason why the VK Sasikala-led faction of the new grand old party that MG Ramachandran and the J Jayalalithaa built is inching closer to the other faction headed by master Amma loyalist and former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam. Notice no one is saying they want to leave the party and consolidate what they have because Sasikala has been jailed in Parappana Agrahara central prison in Bangalore after being held guilty of corruption. Or for that matter Jayalalithaa.

The leadership vacuum after Jayalalithaa which was usurped by the Sasikala-led faction seems to have been short-lived. The spectacle of Chinnamma lording over party and Tamil Nadu led to the sudden change of mind that O Panneerselvam had on a late Tuesday night. He landed up at the Amma Samadhi along the Marina, but without an Ouija board to communicate with the late supremo. OPS didn’t need the Ouija board since Jayalalithaa’s spirit seemed to have told him to go for broke and pitch his own tent. His detractors say OPS had a lot of WhatsApp chats with certain powerful people in New Delhi and had transferred loyalties with a remote control to that. It’s not OPS who rules Tamil Nadu now, it’s another PS but of the Sasikala camp. His name is Edapaddi Palaniswami, therefore EPS as opposed to OPS. Now, the EPS-led camp wants to be rid of Sasikala and the rest of the Mannargudi mafia in one go. They can do this by uniting themselves with the OPS wing.

Battles for succession make for gory sights, the winner takes all. Be it the one between the much-praised Dara Shikoh and the much-maligned Aurangzeb or the one that put M Karunanidhi at the head of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) after CN Annadurai’s demise. The silver-tongued VR Nedunchezhiyan, said to be Anna’s chosen successor, was out-manoeuvred by the quick-thinking, focused Karunanidhi. Similarly, MG Ramachandran (popular as MGR) broke away when Karunanidhi began ignoring him after becoming jealous of the actor’s ability to rouse the crowds with his workman Tamil.

The two-pronged Dravidian political establishment of the last 40-odd years is now shaped like a trident with the DMK and the two AIADMK factions. Of course, there are other offshoots like the Marumalarchi DMK of Vaiko being the most prominent, now left as the rump that conveniently coalesces like putty to fill spaces in alliances of the NDA kind.

It makes great sense for the AIADMK wings to swallow their differences by remembering the good times they had prostrating full-on sashtanga namaskaar at Jayalalithaa’s feet and wondering whether their ageing knees can take the torture again for Sasikala. But will they or won’t they is best left to them. Questions also populate that board: Will OPS allow EPS to be CM? Who will be the party general secretary and such?

These are decisions they have the leisure to take before Sasikala, who took an extremely cinematic 3-slap vow at the Jayalalithaa Samadhi before leaving for incarceration in Bangalore, returns or her nephew TTV Dinakaran gets time from the Delhi Police chasing him in the alleged case to bribe an Election Commission of India official for the now-frozen two leaves symbol. But not for too long though.

If they remain separate entities, they are likely to take the path of Vaiko and become the BJP’s buddy, or even worse, be swallowed by the saffron party that could do with some hardcore cadres in the state.

Unlike the much-vaunted bid to forge unity among the various communist parties split on nuances of interpretation and make-believe, the AIADMK factions have it easier.

Indeed, AIADMK leaders have an enormous responsibility on their shoulders right now, to the people of the state, especially the farmers who are battling a second successive drought year. Their protests in New Delhi have been on for a month at Jantar Mantar but the only time they grabbed eyeballs is when they stripped naked outside the PMO after they were not allowed to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Related Topics:Amma Dinakaran EPS O Panneerselvam OPS Sasikala

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