The bypoll defeats in Madurantakam and Dharapuram have pushed AIADMK and its general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami into the most serious post-Jayalalithaa crisis.EPS detractors now have a sharper argument: Under his leadership, AIADMK lost not just elections, but MLAs who won polls. The party, which stood head and shoulders above DMK under MGR and J Jayalalithaa, has now been relegated to the third place.For EPS, this is not like the earlier internal battles as as it comes with a new caste dimension. Earlier, most of the leaders belonging to the gounder community had backed EPS; now they seem to be divided between his supporters and detractors. In fact, both the camps now have people from the communities of gounders, thevars and vanniyars.The Palaniswami camp includes former ministers Dindigul C Sreenivasan, K P Munusamy, O S Manian, Agri S S Krishnamoorthy, R B Udayakumar, and Thalavai N Sundaram, besides Rajya Sabha MP S Inbadurai. The faction led by S P Velumani has the backing of former ministers such as Natham R Viswanathan, C Ve Shanmugam, P Thangamani and K P Anbalagan. After the party’s recent defeat, dissidents have been meeting at Velumani’s residence to discuss renewed efforts to change the party leadership.In the Madurantakam constituency, AIADMK’s vote share fell by nine percentage points, from 35% it got in the April election. In Dharapuram, its vote share dropped by 15 percentage points, from 41%. “We lost the election because of EPS’s autocratic style of functioning. Much of the damage could have been prevented had he adopted an inclusive approach,” said a former minister from the northern belt.Madurantakam is a reserved constituency with a sizable vanniyar population. Yet Palaniswami appointed Munusamy, a Vanniyar from far-off Krishnagiri, as the constituency in-charge. This was despite the presence of influential functionaries in the region, including Shanmugam, A Arunmozhithevan (Bhuvanagiri), G Hari (Tiruttani) and Veeramani (Jolarpet). Rebels point out how the AIADMK leadership failed to take its ally PMK into confidence. The Vanniyar-based party stayed away from the bypoll, and TVK increased its vote share by nine percentage points and wrested the seat from AIADMK.A similar miscalculation was evident in Dharapuram, a reserved constituency in Erode, which has a substantial gounder population. Palaniswami, who hails from the community, appointed Sreenivasan, a thevar from southern Tamil Nadu, as the constituency in-charge. Neither Velumani nor Thangamani, well-known gounders, was given responsibilities. The party’s vote tally fell by 35,820, from 81,110 in the April election.Palaniswami withdrew disqualification proceedings against 21 of the 25 MLAs after condoning their decision to defy the party whip and vote in favour of TVK govt in May. The four MLAs had resigned by then and defected to TVK. However, EPS’s handling of the rebels further aggravated tensions during the bypolls. None of the legislators who supported TVK during the trust vote figured in the list of star campaigners for the bypolls, except former minister R Kamaraj, G Hari of Tiruttani and N S N Nataraj of Kangayam.EPS has tweaked the organization to pre-empt a coup. He removed more than 30 district secretaries, reorganised 82 district units into 85 and appointed new secretaries. These changes have helped him consolidate the party machinery and strengthen his position ahead of the next general council meeting. Several functionaries who were also general council members have since defected to TVK camp.The disagreement has been simmering. The EPS camp wanted Velumani’s faction to withdraw its representation before Election Commission, which had cited the split in the legislature party as a cause of friction. Velumani group, however, demanded the reinstatement of functionaries removed from party posts. After repeated reminders and personal visits by Velumani, EPS appointed Velumani and Viswanathan as deputy general secretaries and gave eight others positions as organising secretaries and deputy propaganda secretaries.But none of them was reinstated as district secretary – a powerful organisational position in AIADMK. EPS appointed his supporter and former minister Pollachi V Jayaraman as secretary of the Coimbatore suburban-south district unit represented by Velumani. Shanmugam, who had led the rebellion against EPS , was not given any post. Velumani and eight others subsequently wrote to EPS rejecting the appointments.Insiders say Shanmugam, a former law minister, had been instrumental in approaching Election Commission. The rebels are believed to have collected more than 1,400 signatures from general council members across the state in May, well above the number required under the party constitution, for submission to the commission.“That representation before Election Commission remains alive, keeping open the possibility of another confrontation. The ultimate objective is a change of leadership,” said a former minister. It is estimated that EPS would have appointed more than 1,000 new general council members after the rebellion.The bypoll debacle has prompted EPS to rethink his strategy. AIADMK has announced public rallies to mark the party’s 55th foundation day on Oct 17. Most of the rebel leaders, who were earlier given new positions by EPS, have been asked to participate in the rallies outside their districts. But the rebels are planning to stay away from the celebrations and hold separate events. “Is this punishment for supporting TVK? What should be the punishment for EPS for taking a stand to form a govt with the support of DMK?” a rebel leader said.Despite all the noises, EPS still controls the organisation and appears better placed to manage the next general council. His immediate challenge is twofold: containing the Velumani-Shanmugam rebellion and preventing TVK from eating further into AIADMK’s traditional base.Email your feedback with name and address to southpole.toi@timesofindia.com
