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Sasikala’s rapprochement bid with AIADMK gathers steam
This comes at a time when Panneerselvam extended an olive branch to Sasikala by stating that the AIADMK’s leadership will discuss her re-induction much to the annoyance of the party that clarified she will not be taken in.
Expelled leader VK Sasikala’s attempts of a rapprochement with the AIADMK seem to be gathering steam. As a prelude to her statewide tour to meet her supporters, Sasikala on Wednesday attended the wedding of her nephew TTV Dhinakaran’s daughter in Thanjavur district.
AIADMK’s coordinator O Panneerselvam’s younger brother O Raja also attended the reception before her. This comes at a time when Panneerselvam extended an olive branch to Sasikala by stating that the AIADMK’s leadership will discuss her re-induction much to the annoyance of the party that clarified she will not be taken in.
This signalled that Sasikala could continue to count on Panneerselvam though he was the first to launch a rebellion against her in 2017 and for him also to have an option of merging with her while he continues to be sidelined by AIADMK’s co-coordinator Palaniswami.
Though Panneerselvam and Palaniswami are jointly running the party following J Jayalalithaa’s death, the duo have often spared on various issues which is the widening space from which Sasikala is hoping to benefit especially given the AIADMK’s loss in the assembly election in May and the rural local body polls earlier this month. She has assured her supporters that she will bring the party together for its eventual victory.
Ahead of the wedding reception, on Wednesday morning, Dhinakaran added to the voices supporting Sasikala’s re-entry by telling reporters that Panneerselvam’s statement on Sasikala’s re-entry is a fact.
“OPS would usually speak calm and composed. What he said about Chinamma (Sasikala) is right,” Dhinakaran said in Thanjavur.
After the AIADMK had expelled Sasikala and Dhinkaran in 2017, he floated the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhgam (AMMK) with his aunt’s supporters aiming to eventually reclaim the parent party. Dhinakaran added that the AMMK and its cadre would stand firm in this goal to establish the ‘real rule of Amma (Jayalalithaa) in Tamil Nadu.
After dialling cadres of AMMK and AIADMK and assuring them of her return over several phone conversations, Sasikala will meet her supporters directly in Madurai and Ramanathapuram districts on Thursday and Friday.
“It will be meetings without any speeches on a stage,” said a close aide of Sasikala. “On Friday, she will garland the statue of Muthuramalinga Thevar in Goripalayam in Madurai, then the statues of freedom fighters Maruthupandiar brothers in Teppakulam and then she will go to Pasumpon, the hometown of Muthuramalinga Thevar.”
Focus on Thevar
Every year leaders cutting across political lines pay homage to Muthuramalinga Thevar whose hometown is in Pasumpon in Ramanathapuram district in southern Tamil Nadu which has a dominant presence of the Thevar community to which Sasikala and Panneerselvam belong.
On October 30, on the leader’s 113th birth anniversary, tributes to his statue adorned with a gold armour will be paid by chief minister MK Stalin, Palaniswami and Panneerselvam.
Sasikala will do the act a day earlier on Friday. It was a ritual which Jayalalithaa had followed too. Sasikala, who lived with Jayalalithaa for three decades in Chennai’s Poes Garden residence, had ensured the growth of this community by maneuvering their appointments to key posts.
The community has in the past favoured the AIADMK in southern districts such as Madurai, Theni, Tirunelveli, Dindigul and Ramanathapuram. But with Sasikala out of the picture for four years and Palaniswami nurtured his community--the Gounder within the party-- as he rose higher within the party to consolidate his position.
With such caste equations in play, including the 10.5% internal quota for the Vanniyar community that Palaniswami announced while he was chief minister before the model code of conduct came into effect in February, has made Panneerselvam play a tricky role. He couldn’t have been seen upsetting the Thevar community by going hard at Sasikala so he did make similar statements in favour of her return before elections in March.
Fissures in the AIADMK
A leader close to Panneerselvam said channels of communication have been open between him and Sasikala.
“We don’t know if the cadre and public will accept her (Sasikala). When the party is functioning well as an opposition we don’t know why this confusion keeps cropping up,” the leader said on condition of anonymity.
Senior leaders in the party have begun to take sides. While Palaniswami said Sasikala was doing things out of boredom and she will have no place in the party, spokesperson D Jayakumar and the deputy coordinator KP Munusamy too reiterated that AIADMK has already passed a resolution that no one from the party can have a truck with Sasikala which Panneerselvam has signed.
Veteran leader JCD Prabhakar, however, told reporters on Wednesday that the leaders shouldn’t be speaking out against each other. “There is nothing wrong with the interview that OPS gave. Everyone’s wish is for the party to remain united,” said Prabhakar.
Sasikala has had several plans since her release in February from Bengaluru prison where she served a four-year team in the disproportionate assets case. While Sasikala briefly held the reins of the party after Jayalalithaa’s death and her move to become chief minister was cut short with the Supreme Court convicting her in the case, she wanted to pick up from where she left but the party had vastly changed while she was in jail.
Palaniswami, whom she handpicked to be chief minister in her absence, staunchly stonewalled her.
Political analysts say Sasikala is trying for a breakthrough.
“Sasikala is doing what she should be doing,” says political commentator Ramu Manivanann. “But things are not going the way she expects so she’s finding it difficult. She expects OPS to be more loyal and open but he won’t go with her unless he can secure a greater strength. Her idea is to take control of the party and bring Dhinakaran in. She won’t do business with anyone else. For this, she has to go the hard way, mobilise people in the south as she is going to because she doesn’t have support in the north and western districts. My view is that the AIADMK leadership requires a transition. EPS and OPS have just been stonewalling one another.”
