Leadership vacuum

With Palaniswami struggling to establish a hold over the AIADMK, calls for the return of expelled leaders grow stronger

- LAKSHMI SUBRAMANIAN

On October 15, two days before the AIADMK’s 53rd founding day, party general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami issued a statement to his cadre, expressing his willingness to make “sacrifices for victory”. On October 17, when he walked into the party office at Lloyds Road in Chennai, he had another strong message for his followers. The party, he said, had grown stronger and fared better than its rival, the DMK. But those who have watched him and the party closely know that his fight is more with his former colleagues whom he had expelled from the AIADMK than with the DMK or its president, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. And, that was evident when he said, “Those who have been expelled from the party will remain expelled. They will not be taken back into the party.”

In the past, AIADMK cadre and supporters have rallied around one powerful leader, beginning with founder M.G. Ramachandran and then J. Jayalalithaa. Palaniswami, however, is struggling to establish his hold over the party. When MGR floated the AIADMK in 1972, the party had no official ideology. But MGR firmly believed in the ideals of Periyar and C.N. Annadurai and that slant showed in the party. Under Palaniswami, though, the party has slowly walked away from those ideals. Once a key regional and national player, it forfeited deposits in seven Lok Sabha constituencies for the first time in the 2024 elections. In many constituencies, it came third, losing out not just to the DMK but also to the BJP-led NDA. The DMK, which fielded its candidates in 22 Lok Sabha seats, polled 47 per cent of the total votes, whereas the AIADMK got only 22.6 per cent in the 34 seats it contested. Even in the western region where the party is considered to be strong, it lost badly. It lost a chunk of its vote share in south Tamil Nadu, too. A majority of the OBC Thevar vote bank, which was always with the AIADMK, saw a shift since Palaniswami took over.