EPS remained as CM for two years because of our party: PMK to AIADMK

Tamil Nadu’s principal opposition party, AIADMK, and its former ally PMK is engaged in an intense verbal duel on who benefitted most from the alliance in the past two decades.

While the AIADMK asked the PMK not to “kick the ladder you climbed through”, the latter responded by saying not to forget that Edappadi K Palaniswami remained in the Chief Minister’s chair for a near full-term only because the PMK transferred its vote in the 2019 by-elections to 22 assembly constituencies by following “alliance dharma.”

PMK and AIADMK contested Lok Sabha polls in 1998, 2009, and 2019 and assembly polls in 2001 and 2021 in alliance. However, the PMK decided to break away from the alliance in October 2021 when it contested alone in the polls held to rural local bodies in nine districts.

Read | AIADMK to lead alliance for 2024 polls, says EPS

The latest war of words began after PMK chief Anbumani Ramadoss, former Union Health Minister, said in an internal meeting that the AIADMK has split into four factions led by Palaniswami, O Panneerselvam, T T V Dhinakaran, and V K Sasikala. This prompted a strong reaction from the AIADMK with its organising secretary D Jayakumar asking the PMK not to forget that it was late J Jayalalithaa “who gave them address.”

“Don’t kick the ladder you climbed through,” Jayakumar told Anbumani and PMK on Monday, recalling that it was Jayalalithaa who inducted the party into the AIADMK alliance and helped win four Lok Sabha seats. “We also gave 27 assembly seats in 2001 to PMK and they won 20. He (Anbumani) should concentrate on his party affairs rather than belittling the AIADMK,” Jayakumar added.

The comments kicked off a major political storm as the AIADMK went out of its way in 2021 by rushing through a legislation to provide 10.5 per cent internal reservation to Vanniyars, a dominant community who form PMK’s vote bank, in the Tamil Nadu Assembly just an hour before the Election Commission announced the poll schedule. Despite the move, the AIADMK-PMK-BJP alliance lost the elections and didn’t do well even in north TN.

PMK fielded K Baalu, considered close to Anbumani and party spokesman, to hit out at the AIADMK. In an interaction with the media, Baalu said the PMK should be given due credit for Palaniswami continuing as chief minister following the 2019 by-elections.

“During the 2019 by-elections to 22 assembly constituencies, the AIADMK sought our support and we extended unconditional support. We didn’t contest even in our stronghold of north Tamil Nadu. We were the reason for Edappadi Palaniswami continuing as Chief Minister for two years from 2019. Even Jayakumar remained as minister because of us but we never said this publicly,” Baalu said.

The AIADMK, which was surviving on a wafer-thin majority, heaved a sigh of relief after it won 9 seats in the by-elections, though it was defeated by the DMK in 13 constituencies. Baalu said it was the PMK which gave a new lease of life to the AIADMK whenever it had faced crises in the past and the latter shouldn’t forget that.

The PMK spokesperson also said every political party benefits from an alliance and it will be very difficult to assess who gained from whom in elections. Baalu also said it is the AIADMK, especially Palaniswami, who has to clarify the remarks by Jayakumar.

“Is it not true that there is a split in the AIADMK? Even a child knows that the AIADMK is split today. If it is not true, why is the AIADMK knocking at the doors of the judiciary on several issues. The media conducts debates everyday on the split in AIADMK and why doesn’t Jayakumar take objection to such things,” Baalu asked.