One of the victims of the cataclysmic change that the results of the Assembly elections and the subsequent turmoil over government formation brought in is the AIADMK. Though the party with a glorious past, including several tenures in government, finished third in the electoral race winning 47 seats on its own, many of its MLAs, 25 of them at least, are staring into uncertainty over their future. They are apprehensive about their fate as AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswai is out to invoke the provisions of the anti-defection law against them, which means they face the risk of ceasing to be MLAs and having to face another election.
Though the fate of the MLAs, who raised their hands in favour of the ruling party in the vote of confidence in the Assembly, would be known only after Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar returns from Kerala after installing a government in that State, the situation in which the AIADMK finds itself now is not something unique or new in its history. The party founded by the late M G Ramachndran, known endearingly as MGR, has been facing situations like the present one repeatedly since MGR passed away in 1987. In fact the culture of taking away legislators in groups and housing them in groups at hotels and resorts was brought about only by such situations in the AIADMK.
It started with the first split in the party after MGR’s death when one group was led by the late J Jayalalithaa and the other was mobilized in the name of MGR’s widow V N Janaki. It was then one of the groups of MLAs was sheltered in the then Hotel President in Chennai, which has now morphed into a different kind of property. There were stories leaking out of the hotel then about the activities of the MLAs, who were not allowed to meet anyone those days prior to the advent of the mobile phone. The entire State watched with fascination the developments in the AIADMK that included Jayalalithaa staging a protest to take over the party headquarters on Lloyds Road and even courting arrest.
Perhaps the next such major episode was the whisking away of MLAs to Koovathur in 2017 with V K Sasikala presiding over the operation since the rift in the party was triggered by her attempt to become the Chief Minister. O Panneerselvam, who was then the Chief Minister, resented the move by Sasikala to become the Chief Minister and staged a protest, popularly described as ‘Dharma Yutham,’ at the memorial of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. It was then Sasikala, who had managed to become the head of the party, stood disqualified for assuming the Chief Minister’s job as the Supreme Court struck on time with its order on the corruption case that had earlier sent both Jayalalithaa and Sasikala to jail in Bengaluru.
Anyway Koovathur happened to keep the flock of MLAs supporting Sasikala together and not let them be poached by the other group that was opposed to her. It was from that chaos in Koovathur, Edappadi K Palaniswami, the present head honcho of the AIADMK, emerged as leader. He was made Chief Minister by Sasikala herself but he later threw her out of the party and ensured that she never returned. He also subsequently expelled Panneerselvam, who, however, staged a distinct drama at the party headquarters, whose takeover bid in 1987 saw Jayalalithaa in action. Panneerselvam, with his supporters, stormed into the building and ransacked it. Why he did it was – it was learnt later – because he wanted that building to be sealed by the authorities so that Palaniswami, the general secretary of the party, could not enter it.
The ongoing battle for supremacy between Palaniswami and about 25 rebel MLAs, led by C Ve Shanmugham and S P Velumani, too, saw a picket of armed police guarding the same headquarters on Lloyds Road one fine morning as a fear of the rebels storming into it gripped the authorities. However, Shanugham clarified that the headquarters was sacred and sacrosanct to them and they would not defile it, leading to the reduction of the police pickets. But those rebels had already committed the crime of defying the party’s whip and voting in favour of the new government that needed some MLAs to reach the majority mark. Their argument was that the whip could be appointed only by the majority of the elected MLAs while traditionally such posts are filled by the party leadership.
So even if the majority of the MLAs have a particular plan, they have to abide by the whip appointed by the party high command. Defying the whip could attract disqualification from the House and Palaniswami is now trying to invoke that law. The bravado of the rebels who aspired to become ministers and head welfare boards is slowly waning as the reality is sinking in now. They cannot become ministers or take up other posts if they lose their membership in the Legislative Assembly, which Palaniswami was orchestrating. To avert such a disaster, they have shown the white flag to Palaniswami, saying that their differences could be sorted out through talks.
But Palaniswami is angry with them because they thwarted his plan of defeating the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) in the vote of confidence. So it is not clear as to who will win the present war. Perhaps only the Governor can say.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
