CHENNAI: Signs of unrest within Dravidian majors after the poll debacle intensified on Monday, even as DMK president M K Stalin and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami assured their cadres that the two parties would bounce back.While AIADMK veteran S Semmalai quit after serving the party for 45 years, former minister P T R Palanivel Thiagarajan of DMK said he was taking a short break from politics. PTR said he would be travelling abroad to deliver lectures and attend events which he was unable to do during his stint as minister. He would utilise the time to write a book as well.Semmalai, who had held multiple posts in AIADMK under M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, said he was leaving the party because of the ‘dictatorial approach’ of EPS which was shrinking the party’s strength. The EPS camp dismissed his resignation as insignificant.Parallelly, EPS mounted a fresh attack on TVK, accusing the Vijay-led party of resorting to horse trading. “TVK was luring AIADMK MLAs promising cabinet berths,’’ he said. Calling it a ‘poi kaal kuthirai’ (dummy horse with false legs), EPS said the TVK govt would not last long. On the other hand AIADMK would bounce back, he said. “Our differences would be sorted out through internal discussions,’’ he said. He has invited districts secretaries for a meeting on Tuesday.The rival faction, meanwhile, intensified pressure on the leadership. Viralimalai MLA C Vijayabaskar claimed the rebels had secured support from two-fifths of AIADMK’s general council members to convene a special general council meeting to discuss the reasons behind the party’s defeat and the need to bring younger leaders into the organisation. The rebel MLAs held a meeting on Monday too.DMK too is witnessing voices of dissent against senior ministers as well as strategy firm PEN, run by Stalin’s son-in-law Sabarisan. Former MLAs also publicly criticised senior ministers such as K N Nehru and P K Sekar Babu.Stalin, however, said the TVK victory was driven by TVK’s strategy of using Instagram and getting children to convince their parents to support Vijay. He urged DMK men to thwart such strategies. “DMK would rise again like the Phoenix,” he said.
