It’s true that the merged factions of the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam (OPS) have won one major battle in securing the approval of the Election Commission as the true All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and also the iconic “two-leaves” symbol of the party.
For a journalist like me who has been watching the political turmoil since 1987, it looks as if the two factions – AIADMK (Amma) and AIADMK (Putatchi Thalaivi Amma) --- have won only a pyrrhic victory.
It is a common sight nowadays that Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam hug each other and pat each other’s back. But what next is the moot question?
The relations between the two factions have been friction-ridden. OPS loyalist Dr. V. Maitreyan let the cat out of the bag when he tweeted that “though the factions have united, their hearts have not”. Despite the strident defence by both Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Dr. M. Thambidurai and Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar that everything is hunky-dory between the factions, Dr. Maitreyan pricked the balloon further asserting “what I am saying is the reflection of the feelings of our party cadres”.
One more incident that has further aggravated the relations between the factions is the failure of the EPS faction to invite OPS for a major party function at Madurai recently.
Now both EPS and OPS are involved in firefighting to prevent the disaffection among the cadres from spreading like wild fire which could reduce their strategy and ambitions to ashes.
The major problem that confronts the ruling party is the lack of leadership.This cannot be compensated by the mere symbol.
It was Mr. S. Thirunavukkarasar (now the TNCC president), who was one of the members of the MGR Cabinet and the earliest supporter of Jayalalithaa, who prophetically said : “MGR is 1— we are all zeroes”.
This is a party which is accustomed to one man or one woman rule and there is not even a whimper against the leader.
Founder M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) was a phenomenon whose actions could never be questioned and nobody dared to do so. His successor J. Jayalalithaa was no better. She was an autocrat who could outsmart even Indira Gandhi. I have seen how all her Ministers and party leaders used to kowtow before her. Even in the Assembly, her permanent stand-in OPS used to stand only at 40 degrees. Nobody ever used to see her eye to eye. It was only when she required the support of seniors, immediately after the demise of MGR in 1987 till she took over the reins of the State in 1991, she bothered about leaders like Panrutti S. Ramachandran, V.R. Neduchezhiyan, S.D. Somasundram, C. Aranganayagam, K. Rajaram, H.V. Hande,KKSSR Ramachandran and, of course, Thirunavukkarasu (now Thirunavukkasar). Thereafter they were just ornamental figures.
Above all, Jayalalithaa never allowed any one to grow. She made everyone subservient to her and humiliated even her closest confidante Sasikala, who was her virtual shadow for three decades, by not only expelling her from the party and her bungalow but also jailing Sasikala’s husband M. Natarajan. Sasikala’s entire family was banished from the party and Veda Nilayam for more than 5 years.There was not a single Minister who was sure of his berth in the Ministry.
Efficiency has never been the criterion, total subservience and loyalty were the most appreciated. Jayalalithaa had all the qualities of Stalin and Saddam Hussein put together as she could purge her party at just the drop of a hat. Every day the party men used to wait with bated breath for the party mouthpiece “Namadhu MGR” to see who is in and who is out of the party. As long as Jayalalithaa was alive, not a single word was ever uttered by any Minister, leave alone party leaders. All of them knew that they were on razor’s edge all the time. Thus was the iron hold that the matriarch had. Except for a whip in hand, she was a perfect ring master.
For such a party to remain totally liberated from the shackles itself is a punishment. Now we can see every Tom, Dick and Harry speaking on anything. It’s all no-holds barred now. There is no leader at all who can command some respect, even among the party men. It is only the power that is acting as a glue.
Tamil Nadu which has seen four charismatic leaders since the advent of the Dravidian rule in the State - Mr. C.N. Annadurai, Mr. M. Karunanidhi , Mr. M.G. Ramachandran and Ms. Jayalalithaa - looks totally lifeless now. Others now in the horizon of AIADMK can by no stretch of imagination be called “mass leaders” or “vote catchers”.
The first test for the “unified AIADMK” is the R.K. Nagar bypoll on December 21. The faction of T.T.V. Dinakaran could prove a nuisance for the AIADMK as much as what Mr. M.K. Alagiri , the second son of the DMK patriarch Mr. Karunaidhi, did to damage his parent party in 2016 Assembly polls.
The major advantage that DMK now has is that it is battle-ready. It has already announced its candidate. But AIADMK is still struggling to find one because of too many aspirants. This is unheard of and if there is any rebel, it would further damage the chances of the official candidate.
According to me, RK Nagar bypoll is just a symbolic exercise. Winning or losing doesn’t matter much. It can only help drum-beating.
But there is a far bigger test in the form of local body elections. The much-delayed local body election in Tamil Nadu, eagerly awaited by both the public and the major political parties in the state, is likely to be a litmus test for the AIADMK. There is no clarity on when the elections are likely to be held.
The civic elections are already delayed by more than a year.
Elections for 12 municipal corporations, 148 municipalities, 561 town panchayats, 12,620 village panchayats, 385 panchayat unions and 32 district panchayats are held once in 5 years. The polls for these bodies were last conducted in 2011.
When elections were announced in 2016, the main opposition party Dravida Munnnetra Kazhagam (DMK) moved the Madras High Court that reservation policy was not followed in respect of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community.
As against the original schedule of October 17 and 19, the Madras High Court ordered that the entire election process should be completed by December 2016.
With the passing away of Jayalalithaa during the first week of December and the change of guard, the elections were further postponed.
Once again, the High Court directed the State Government to complete the election process by May 2017. Even that deadline was not respected.
The Madras High Court recently ordered conduct of local body elections by November 17. But that deadline is also past now.
The party which has been in power in the State for 7 terms since it was founded in 1972 by the charismatic matinee idol MGR is in disarray following the untimely demise of its supremo and 4-time Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on December 5 last year.The two-leaves symbol might goad the ruling party to act now and go in for early local body polls.
However, with several internal squabbles rearing their ugly heads, will the AIADMK stick its neck out now ? For me, it is a million dollar question.That will reveal how strong the party really is and how helpful the “two leaves” symbol could be.
For a journalist like me who has been watching the political turmoil since 1987, it looks as if the two factions – AIADMK (Amma) and AIADMK (Putatchi Thalaivi Amma) --- have won only a pyrrhic victory.
It is a common sight nowadays that Mr. Palaniswami and Mr. Panneerselvam hug each other and pat each other’s back. But what next is the moot question?
The relations between the two factions have been friction-ridden. OPS loyalist Dr. V. Maitreyan let the cat out of the bag when he tweeted that “though the factions have united, their hearts have not”. Despite the strident defence by both Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Dr. M. Thambidurai and Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar that everything is hunky-dory between the factions, Dr. Maitreyan pricked the balloon further asserting “what I am saying is the reflection of the feelings of our party cadres”.
One more incident that has further aggravated the relations between the factions is the failure of the EPS faction to invite OPS for a major party function at Madurai recently.
Now both EPS and OPS are involved in firefighting to prevent the disaffection among the cadres from spreading like wild fire which could reduce their strategy and ambitions to ashes.
The major problem that confronts the ruling party is the lack of leadership.This cannot be compensated by the mere symbol.
It was Mr. S. Thirunavukkarasar (now the TNCC president), who was one of the members of the MGR Cabinet and the earliest supporter of Jayalalithaa, who prophetically said : “MGR is 1— we are all zeroes”.
This is a party which is accustomed to one man or one woman rule and there is not even a whimper against the leader.
Founder M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) was a phenomenon whose actions could never be questioned and nobody dared to do so. His successor J. Jayalalithaa was no better. She was an autocrat who could outsmart even Indira Gandhi. I have seen how all her Ministers and party leaders used to kowtow before her. Even in the Assembly, her permanent stand-in OPS used to stand only at 40 degrees. Nobody ever used to see her eye to eye. It was only when she required the support of seniors, immediately after the demise of MGR in 1987 till she took over the reins of the State in 1991, she bothered about leaders like Panrutti S. Ramachandran, V.R. Neduchezhiyan, S.D. Somasundram, C. Aranganayagam, K. Rajaram, H.V. Hande,KKSSR Ramachandran and, of course, Thirunavukkarasu (now Thirunavukkasar). Thereafter they were just ornamental figures.
Above all, Jayalalithaa never allowed any one to grow. She made everyone subservient to her and humiliated even her closest confidante Sasikala, who was her virtual shadow for three decades, by not only expelling her from the party and her bungalow but also jailing Sasikala’s husband M. Natarajan. Sasikala’s entire family was banished from the party and Veda Nilayam for more than 5 years.There was not a single Minister who was sure of his berth in the Ministry.
Efficiency has never been the criterion, total subservience and loyalty were the most appreciated. Jayalalithaa had all the qualities of Stalin and Saddam Hussein put together as she could purge her party at just the drop of a hat. Every day the party men used to wait with bated breath for the party mouthpiece “Namadhu MGR” to see who is in and who is out of the party. As long as Jayalalithaa was alive, not a single word was ever uttered by any Minister, leave alone party leaders. All of them knew that they were on razor’s edge all the time. Thus was the iron hold that the matriarch had. Except for a whip in hand, she was a perfect ring master.
For such a party to remain totally liberated from the shackles itself is a punishment. Now we can see every Tom, Dick and Harry speaking on anything. It’s all no-holds barred now. There is no leader at all who can command some respect, even among the party men. It is only the power that is acting as a glue.
Tamil Nadu which has seen four charismatic leaders since the advent of the Dravidian rule in the State - Mr. C.N. Annadurai, Mr. M. Karunanidhi , Mr. M.G. Ramachandran and Ms. Jayalalithaa - looks totally lifeless now. Others now in the horizon of AIADMK can by no stretch of imagination be called “mass leaders” or “vote catchers”.
The first test for the “unified AIADMK” is the R.K. Nagar bypoll on December 21. The faction of T.T.V. Dinakaran could prove a nuisance for the AIADMK as much as what Mr. M.K. Alagiri , the second son of the DMK patriarch Mr. Karunaidhi, did to damage his parent party in 2016 Assembly polls.
The major advantage that DMK now has is that it is battle-ready. It has already announced its candidate. But AIADMK is still struggling to find one because of too many aspirants. This is unheard of and if there is any rebel, it would further damage the chances of the official candidate.
According to me, RK Nagar bypoll is just a symbolic exercise. Winning or losing doesn’t matter much. It can only help drum-beating.
But there is a far bigger test in the form of local body elections. The much-delayed local body election in Tamil Nadu, eagerly awaited by both the public and the major political parties in the state, is likely to be a litmus test for the AIADMK. There is no clarity on when the elections are likely to be held.
The civic elections are already delayed by more than a year.
Elections for 12 municipal corporations, 148 municipalities, 561 town panchayats, 12,620 village panchayats, 385 panchayat unions and 32 district panchayats are held once in 5 years. The polls for these bodies were last conducted in 2011.
When elections were announced in 2016, the main opposition party Dravida Munnnetra Kazhagam (DMK) moved the Madras High Court that reservation policy was not followed in respect of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community.
As against the original schedule of October 17 and 19, the Madras High Court ordered that the entire election process should be completed by December 2016.
With the passing away of Jayalalithaa during the first week of December and the change of guard, the elections were further postponed.
Once again, the High Court directed the State Government to complete the election process by May 2017. Even that deadline was not respected.
The Madras High Court recently ordered conduct of local body elections by November 17. But that deadline is also past now.
The party which has been in power in the State for 7 terms since it was founded in 1972 by the charismatic matinee idol MGR is in disarray following the untimely demise of its supremo and 4-time Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on December 5 last year.The two-leaves symbol might goad the ruling party to act now and go in for early local body polls.
However, with several internal squabbles rearing their ugly heads, will the AIADMK stick its neck out now ? For me, it is a million dollar question.That will reveal how strong the party really is and how helpful the “two leaves” symbol could be.