With former Minister Senthil Balaji joining the DMK on Friday, the process of disintegration of the AIADMK has reached the full steam. Hundreds of his followers too accompanied Balaji in his journey from Karur to Chennai and then to the DMK headquarters at Mount Road in the metro.
Balaji and his followers were welcomed into the DMK by party chief MK Stalin. It was a home coming for Senthil Balaji who had left the DMK in 2000 to join the AIADMK and was elected thrice to the Legislative Assembly in the party ticket.
“The AIADMK is a sinking ship and Thalapathi (Tamil for commander, as Stalin is addressed by his followers) is the only leader who is capable of resuscitating Tamil Nadu from the clutches of the BJP,” Balaji told reporters after enrolling himself as a DMK volunteer.
Hereafter he will address Stalin as Thalapathi and Jayalalithaa as Jayalalithaa. Before reaching Chennai on Friday morning, Balaji and his followers had removed the pictures of Jayalalithaa and Sasikala from their shirt pockets, cars and SUVs. By the time they left the DMK head quarters, all vehicles in the motorcade accompanying Balaji spotted pictures of Stalin and Karunanidhi.
TTV Dhinakaran, general secretary of Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK), the breakaway faction of the AIADMK launched by VK Sasikala (aide to late J Jayalalithaa) wished Senthil Balaji as the best in his new innings in the DMK. “I don’t know why he decided to leave us. If he had any genuine problems and had told us about it, we could have sorted it out,” said Dhinakaran in Friday. Balaji was a camp follower of Dhinakaran and the AMMK before he cast his lots with the DMK.
G Satyamurthy, political commentator and columnist said the exit of Balaji was not going to make any impact on the fortunes of the AIADMK or the AMMK. “Both are fast disintegrating and I do not know whether the AIADMK would survive the 2021 Assembly election. The ground report is that the AIADMK would be wiped out in the Lok Sabha election,” said Satyamurthy who is also sceptical about the strength of Dhinakaran.
“AIADMK does not have a charismatic leader who could match the calibre of Jayalalithaa to pull it through the troubled times. I am not sure about the capabilities of Dhinakaran,” said Satyamurthy. He also said Senthil Balaji joining the DMK is also media hype. “You wait for a couple of weeks and see what happens to him and Dhinakaran. Tamil Nadu politics is getting churned,” he said.
Dr V Mythreyan, MP and senior leader of the AIADMK said there is no possibility of his party’s merger with the Dhinakaran faction. “O Panneerselvam, our convener, has made it clear that there is no question of aligning with the Sasikala family dominated party and the subject ends there,” Mythreyan said.
This puts to rest at least for the time being, reports about the possibilities of merger between the rival factions which were being highlighted by the local media.