VILLUPURAM: PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss on Wednesday called on his father and party founder S Ramadoss at the Thailapuram farmhouse near Tindivanam and reconciled with him, burying their bitter political and personal feud.The breakthrough occurred during a rare, two-and-a-half-hour family reunion at senior Ramadoss’s farmhouse on the occasion of his 61st wedding anniversary. Keen to seek his parents’ blessings on the occasion, Anbumani arrived at the farmhouse accompanied by his wife, his three daughters, his son-in-law, his grandchildren and his youngest sister.Upon their arrival, household staff performed traditional Aarthi rituals and smashed a sacrificial coconut to ward off evil eyes. When father and son stood face-to-face after 18 months, emotions completely overwhelmed Ramadoss, who instantly hugged Anbumani tightly and wept uncontrollably.Moved by his father’s tears, Anbumani also broke down. The emotional embrace lasted more than three minutes as both cried on each other’s shoulders, reducing others to tears. After regaining his composure, Anbumani comforted his father, and the couple fell at the elderly founder’s feet to obtain his traditional blessings. Coming out of the farmhouse, a visibly relieved Anbumani briefly addressed the media, stating, “From now on, only good things will happen.” The reconciliation indicates that the long-standing hostility between the two has reached an end. With the family feud resolved, an official announcement detailing the reunification of the two PMK factions and their plan to jointly resume party work is highly anticipated by political circles in the coming days.
The intense friction between the father and son traces back to Dec 28, 2024, during the party’s general body meeting. At that event, Ramadoss unexpectedly announced the appointment of Mukundan, his grandson through his daughter, as the leader of the PMK youth wing. Anbumani directly opposed this step on stage, triggering an explosive verbal showdown. In the ensuing months, the party split vertically into two factions.Ramadoss began summarily expelling Anbumani’s loyalists and appointing his own supporters to key administrative posts. Rebuking his father, Anbumani declared that the founder lacked the constitutional authority to sack office-bearers and asserted his sole authority as the party president. The crisis peaked during the recent state assembly elections. Backed by a favourable court order declaring that the party belonged to him, Anbumani fielded candidates under the PMK’s official ‘mango’ symbol. In retaliation, Ramadoss fielded independent candidates on separate symbols directly opposing his son’s nominees.Throughout this period, Anbumani had completely avoided his father. He went to Thailapuram farmhouse only when Ramadoss was absent to visit his mother and explicitly boycotted his father’s 87th birthday celebrations and last year’s anniversary. The senior Ramadoss had once even broken down in tears before the press, lamenting that his own son had completely forsaken him.
