Anbumani challenges father, says he continues to be PMK chief

Chennai: Challenging his father S Ramadoss’s decision to demote him, Anbumani Ramadoss on Saturday asserted that he continues to be the president of the PMK as he was duly elected by the General Council, which was ratified by the Election Commission of India (ECI). 

While claiming that there was “no confusion” with regard to the leadership structure in the PMK, Anbumani said he will continue to travel in the path shown by his father Ramadoss and will never deviate from the principles on which the party was launched in 1989. 

Ramadoss had on Thursday dropped a political bombshell by assuming the role of party president after relegating Anbumani as the working president, bringing to the fore yet again serious differences within the first family with just a year to go for the 2026 assembly polls. 

“Since the ECI has recognized my election as the President of the PMK by members of the General Council, I will continue to function in the role,” Anbumani said in a late night statement. He also said his goals were to successfully conduct the youth wing’s conference in May and ensure that the party wins a record number of seats in the 2026 assembly elections. 

“I reiterate that my primary duty is to achieve the political goals of Ayya (his father Ramadoss) and steer the PMK to add glory to him. To achieve this, I will be meeting you very soon,” he added.

Anbumani, the former Union Health Minister who was appointed as PMK president in 2022 with an aim to make the party attractive for the youth, and his father Ramadoss had fought publicly in December 2024 over the appointment of a close relative as the youth chief by the latter. 

Sending out a clear message that he was the boss, Ramadoss had on Thursday recalled the struggles that led to the forming of the PMK after 21 persons lost their life during the agitation for bringing Vanniyars under the Most Backward Class (MBC) category. 

Ramadoss, one of the senior most politicians in the state, is said to have been upset with the PMK tilting towards the BJP for the past few years under Anbumani’s leadership. The party failing to win in its stronghold of Dharmapuri for the second consecutive Lok Sabha polls is cited as one of the factors that led Ramadoss to rethink about the party’s alliance strategy.

He wants the PMK not to water down its core agenda of uplifting the lives of Vanniyars and ally only with Dravidian parties, if needed, sources told DH.

The decision also comes just months before Anbumani’s Rajya Sabha tenure ends and on a day Union Home Minister Amit Shah arrived here on a two-day political visit, triggering speculation whether the PMK was warming up to AIADMK to ensure another term for junior Ramadoss. 

The public spat between the father and son in December 2024 had underscored not only the power struggle within the family for control of the PMK but also over the cash-and asset-rich public trusts, including the party’s parent organisation, the Vanniyar Sangam, formed for the community’s welfare.

PMK, whose influence has been waning even among Vanniyars, still commands a committed vote bank of about 5 per cent and was part of the A B Vajpayee-led government and the UPA-I. 

The party which came into being in 1989 primarily to espouse the cause of Vanniyars, had swung like a pendulum between DMK and AIADMK for decades together, and aligned with the BJP after its experiment of going alone failed in 2016.