Agencies

When a young J Jayalalithaa claimed to be the successor of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) founder MG Ramachandran in the 1980s, she invited derisive comments from several quarters. A senior leader of the opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is believed to have said sarcastically, “At this rate, are you going to say she will become chief minister one day?” Not only did the actress-turned-politician — called Amma by her supporters — become Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, she also earned praise for being an efficient administrator. After Jayalalithaa died in December 2016, few in the state expected Edappadi Palaniswami to become the chief minister. After all, he wasn’t wellknown across the state. Even after he was made chief minister in February 2017, few expected him to last in that position. But nearly three years later, not only is the 65-year-old very much in the chair, Palaniswami has also become the unquestioned leader of the AIADMK, thanks to some shrewd manoeuvring. Everybody underestimated Palaniswami, says Rangaraj Pandey, founder of digital news channel Chanakyaa TV.Raised in a farming family in Edappadi in Salem district in western Tamil Nadu, Palaniswami joined the AIADMK in 1974 and worked up the ranks. A Jayalalithaa loyalist, he sided with her when the AIADMK broke into two after Ramachandran’s death in 1987. He first became a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Edappadi in 1989, a seat he retained in 1991 but lost in 1996. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tiruchengode in 1998. After defeats in the 1999 and 2004 general elections and in the 2006 state elections, Palaniswami became an MLA again in 2011. He was then made minister of highways and minor ports and was one of four key ministers — informally called naalvar ani (the team of four) — in Jayalalithaa’s cabinet. In 2016, he was also given charge of the public works department.Palaniswami came under the spotlight after a power tussle in the AIADMK that began with the death of Jayalalithaa — she was the chief minister then. Senior party leader O Panneerselvam, a trusted aide of Jayalalithaa, became the CM. He had been interim chief minister twice when Jayalalithaa had to give up the chief minister’s post due to legal issues. But Panneerselvam had to resign as CM in February as Jayalalithaa’s aide VK Sasikala, who had by then been appointed the general secretary of AIADMK, had her eyes on the throne. On February 14, the Supreme Court blew Sasikala’s plans out of the water as it convicted her in a disproportionate assets case and upheld a four-year sentence given by a trial court. She then named Palaniswami as the CM. The party also expelled Panneerselvam and his supporters the same day.In August 2017, however, Palaniswami took a decision that brought the party factions together and strengthened his position. He brought Panneerselvam and his MLAs back into the fold, made him deputy chief minister, and then expelled Sasikala and her nephew, TTV Dhinakaran, from the party. Sources say this was done at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s urging. Retaining the AIADMK’s “two leaves” symbol — which has a large following in the state — was one of the major reasons for the merger of the factions, says senior journalist Maalan V Narayanan. Palaniswami was initially considered Sasikala’s man. “But he asserted himself by bringing district leaders under his control.”Not only was he able to stay on as the CM, he was also able to ensure a firm hold on the party. Panneerselvam became coordinator and Palaniswami joint coordinator of the AIADMK, making the latter’s approval essential for any decision. Another act of assertion by Palaniswami was his sacking of the IT minister in August for criticising the state government’s decision to slash tariffs charged by the state-owned cable TV corporation and for targeting another minister who runs a private cable network.The party recently amended its bylaws to prevent the re-entry of Sasikala, who is due to be released from prison in 2021, and Dhinakaran. “Sasikala will keep up the fight. She and (actor) Rajinikanth will be AIADMK’s biggest challenges,” says Pandey. A former AIADMK minister who is no longer with the party says that AIADMK MLAs’ loyalty will be tested when Sasikala is back. “Most of them were brought into the party by her.” Her nephew Dhinakaran took everyone by surprise when he won the by-election to the seat represented by Jayalalithaa in December 2017, but his party, the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, came a cropper in the 2019 by-polls.Another challenge for the AIADMK would be Rajinikanth, who has been dropping hints about entering politics. The state has already had two actor-turned-CMs. Besides, Tamil Nadu is yet to fill the vacuum created after the death of towering politicians Jayalalithaa and the DMK’s M Karunanidhi. Rajinikanth could join hands with fellow actor Kamal Haasan , who already has a party, in 2021. He recently cited Palaniswami’s rise as evidence that miracles do happen, referring to his own chances in the elections.Some like S Anandhi, professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, say Rajinikanth could be a bigger threat to MK Stalin, Karunanidhi’s son. But, as Congress member of Parliament S Thirunavukkarasar points out, “There is no dual leadership in the DMK, unlike the AIADMK.” For now, AIADMK seems to be sailing well despite having two leaders. Referred to as OPS and EPS, respectively, Panneerselvam and Palaniswami wear their shirts rolled up above their elbows and are seldom seen without a streak of ash on their foreheads. Since the merger, Palaniswami has understood the importance of Panneerselvam. “Palaniswami has ensured the support of the Centre through Panneerselvam,” says Narayanan. The Union government has recently approved nine new medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. Moreover, Panneerselvam’s proximity to the BJP has been borne out by, among other things, his son and MP from Theni P Raveendranath Kumar’s support for the triple talaq bill in the Lok Sabha. The AIADMK opposed it in the Rajya Sabha. The party has one MP in the Lok Sabha and 11 in the Rajya Sabha.The AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance in Tamil Nadu lost all but one of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state this year, but the party managed to win 11 of the 24 assembly by-elections, enough to keep it in power with a slim majority in the 235-member assembly. The AIADMK kept the BJP at bay while campaigning for the Vellore parliamentary constituency, which has a sizeable Muslim population. That almost worked, with the DMK winning by a margin of just 8,000 votes. The parties are now preparing for the local body polls. To gain an edge, the Palaniswami government has passed an ordinance making way for councillors to directly elect mayors in 15 cities and municipal chairpersons in 121 towns, instead of voters electing them. This was done to neutralise AIADMK allies’ demands for a disproportionate share of mayoral seats and because the AIADMK cannot win any of the major mayoral elections directly, says A Saravanan, a spokesperson for the DMK. Palaniswami was not available for comment.Other decisions taken by Palaniswami that could yield him dividends in the local body and assembly polls include the creation of five districts, and the option for one million families to get 5 kg rice free per person every month. Some compare Palaniswami with Karunanidhi for the speed with which he clears files. Parallels are also drawn between Palaniswami and Jayalalithaa for the way he handled protests by government employees, including teachers, doctors and transport staff.“These protests did not last more than 10 days and Palaniswami did not agree to their demands. Only Jayalalithaa took such decisions,” says Pandey. The biggest blot on the Palaniswami government was the killing of 13 people in police firing during a protest against a Sterlite Copper smelter in Thoothukudi in May 2018. Palaniswami’s rise has coincided with the growing influence of Kongu Vellala Gounders, the landed caste influential in western Tamil Nadu which he belongs to, in the AIADMK. Thevars, a dominant group in southern Tamil Nadu, have traditionally held sway in the party. Panneerselvam and Sasikala are both Thevars.In the 2016 assembly polls, Kongu Vellalars were the largest caste group among AIADMK victors, accounting for 28 MLAs, compared with 20 Thevar MLAs, reported The Hindu. “Sasikala’s huge Thevar constituency has lost out. That is clear,” says Anandhi. Palaniswami’s calculated moves in the party and government notwithstanding, the 2021 polls will be his first big test since taking over as chief minister. “After MGR, Jayalalithaa became chief minister by winning over voters. But Palaniswami became chief minister because of the MLAs and not because of popular support,” says the former AIADMK minister.RM Babu Murugavel, spokesperson, AIADMK, disagrees disagrees and says Palaniswami already has the support of the people. “The local body polls will again prove that.” The 2021 election will be unlike any in recent times. The entry of Rajinikanth could make it a three-cornered contest instead of a battle between DMK and AIADMK. Rajinikanth is still an unknown quantity but the leaders he will be up against — Palaniswami and Stalin — are not the political heavyweights their predecessors were. For Palaniswami, nothing less than a win for the AIADMK in 2021 can secure his position atop the party.