Its latest poll debacle in Tamil Nadu, in the urban local body elections, has reignited discussions in the AIADMK over the ousted leader V K Sasikala’s return to the party.
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Kicking off a move to “unite the party”, AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam held a meeting at his residence in Theni district on 2 March, which decided to get the party rank and file affiliated to the Sasikala faction back into its fold.
About 200 AIADMK functionaries participated in this meeting that deliberated on the reasons for the party’s continuing defeats at the hustings. “One of the reasons for the electoral debacles was considered to be a division in the party. A majority of members demanded that this problem be rectified by bringing back Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) cadres,” said a party leader close to Panneerselvam.
Referring to the AIADMK’s crushing defeat in recent urban local body polls, in which the party lost all Municipal Corporations across the state to the ruling DMK, the party’s Theni district secretary Syed Khan said, “We have been defeated due to our own mistakes. We have never faced such setbacks in the past. A unanimous decision has been taken and submitted to Panneerselvam. He promised that he would respect the opinion of cadres. So we demand that Sasikala and Dhinakaran (Sasikala’s nephew) should be brought back. We need to be united to win all upcoming polls.”
Top AIADMK sources confirmed that this unity bid has the “blessings” of Sasikala.
One of the decisions taken at the Theni meeting was that the AIADMK functionaries would visit all key cadres at their homes on March 3 before the party’s district executive council meeting scheduled for March 4. Palaniswami also had a meeting with his close aides.
The AIADMK district committee in Theni was among nearly 50 per cent of such committees in Tamil Nadu, which did not pass a resolution ousting Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran from the party in 2017 while supporting the party leadership in the form of former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and ex-Deputy CM Panneerselvam.
Panneerselvam has continued to hold the top position in the AIADMK as its coordinator, but Palaniswami, despite remaining the party’s deputy coordinator, has had more control over the district committees.
Sasikala was expected to stake her claim over the AIADMK leadership after her release from a Bangaluru prison early last year, but she remained “aloof and reluctant” towards politics. As she chose to keep mum, the influence of Dhinakaran’s AMMK also waned.
Sources in the Sasikala camp said the current political situation might mark a new beginning for her. “She didn’t want to interfere earlier due to various crucial elections, but all these defeats prove that the party should be reunited. And reuniting the AIADMK is her only agenda,” said a source close to Sasikala.
Apparently seeking to drive a hard bargain, Dhinakaran said he was not thinking about making a return to the AIADMK now, even as he said he does not hold any grudge against anyone in the party. He said he would comment on the AIADMK’s “unity talks” only when there is a collective decision in this regard. “Because they have lost all the polls, they may be thinking of a reunited party. Let us wait and see,” he said.
The Panneerselvam camp hopes more party leaders will raise their voices in favour of Sasikala’s return in the coming days.
Former AIADMK MLA from Coimbatore, V C Arukutty, an erstwhile Panneerselvam loyalist who had switched to the Palaniswami camp in mid-2017, said the Tamil Nadu people had been voting for the AIADMK before J Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016. “Our poll defeats since have been due to our current leadership’s faults – we have started losing the party. TTV and Sasikala should join hands with AIADMK to save the party now,” he said.
In an ironic turn of events, Panneerselvam, who had started the rebellion against Sasikala after Jayalalithaa’s death, favours her return now, while Palaniswami, once a staunch Sasikala loyalist deputed by her to oust Panneerselvam from the CM’s post, is opposing her return, even as he has sidelined the latter in the party.
It had been reported earlier that Panneerselvam met Sasikala and Dhinakaran after her release from the prison, when Palaniswami made repeated statements ruling out the possibility of Sasikala’s re-entry into the party.
The AIADMK’s rout in the urban local body polls followed a series of its massive losses after 2019, including the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the 2021 Assembly polls, and the rural local body polls held in two phases over the last couple of years.