The AIADMK, Tamil Nadu’s ruling party since 2011, has become dormant and is facing the biggest crisis since its formation in 1972. “If the two factions fail to merge at the earliest, they would perish soon,” this is the message the entire cadre of the AIADMK spread out across Tamil Nadu has to give to the leaders of both the factions of the party. Many cadres are actively considering to ditch the party while the AIADMK headquarters in Chennai has gone silent.
“The leaders of both the Amma and Puratchi Thalaivi Amma factions should see the writing on the wall. There are no leaders in both the factions of the party who could match the stature of Amma (late Jayalalithaa) or Puratchi Thalaivar (as late MG Ramachandran, the founder of the AIADMK has been addressed by the cadre). It is only through a give and take approach the party could survive. Otherwise we are in for a major disaster,” said a senior leader of the AIADMK who is with the Edappadi Palaniswamy faction of the party.
“I am remaining with the party leadership because I do not want to be seen as a spoiler of the AIADMK on this centenary year of MGR. It is known to all leaders in the party that both V K Sasikala and TTV Dhinakaran are no match to the charisma of MGR and Jayalalithaa,” said the leader on condition of anonymity. He said that in the event of the factions continue to fight on the issue of leadership, the DMK would turn out to be the only beneficiary. “If the present stand-off continues like this, there would not be any AIADMK worth its name by the 2022 Assembly election,” said the leader.
Yet another founder member of the party who is with the Edappady Palaniswamy faction said the official faction said the Chief Minister should not hesitate to order a comprehensive probe into the hospitalisation and demise of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.
“Panneerselvam, while he was the chief minister, had ordered a probe into the death of Jayalalithaa. He had announced it on February 8 after he submitted his resignation to the Governor. Since the governor had asked him to continue as Chief Minister till alternate arrangements were made, the order issued by Panneerselvam is valid,” said the founder member of the party who expressed his doubts over the mental and physical position of the late CM.
Both the leaders pointed out that the cabal led by VK Sasikala and her close family members had manipulated the list of party candidates whose names were approved by Jayalalithaa. “It looks bizarre that 14 candidates who were introduced by Amma (as Jayalalithaa is addressed by the cadre) during her campaign meetings were later replaced by Sasikala and her relations without the concurrence of Amma. Why such large scale alterations were made in the list of candidates have to ber probed by an independent body,” said the leaders.
Referring to the declarations by deputy speaker of the lok Sabha Thambi Durai that the AIADMK would come back to power in the 2022 Assembly election, they said the statement shows the fear in the mind of Thambi Durai. The next election is almost five years away. let the present Government prove its mettle by continuing in office till 2022,” they said.