As EC declares Anbumani is PMK chief, Ramadoss left with little options

Chennai: Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss seems to have lost the battle for the control of the 36-year-old party founded by him in 1989 with the Election Commission of India (ECI) recognising his son Anbumani as the president of the party.

In a letter dated November 27 sent to Ramadoss, the ECI said as per records available with the agency, the term of office bearers of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) is valid up to August 1, 2026 and Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss is the president of the party.

“It is to state that if you are claiming to be the president of the party, you are advised to approach the appropriate party forum or competent court to settle the matter regarding office bearers of the party,” Love Kush Yadav, Under Secretary, ECI, said in the letter.

The letter was in response to several communications that Ramadoss sent to the ECI seeking clarity on the leadership after he claimed to have sacked his son Anbumani as the president by wielding his powers as founder of the party.

ECI recognising Anbumani is a body blow for Ramadoss, who founded the PMK in 1989 riding high on the Tamil Nadu government recognising Vanniyars, a dominant community spread across North and Central parts of Tamil Nadu, as a Most Backward Community (MBC).

With this, Ramadoss has only two options left before him – concede defeat to his son or launch a new party as political analysts believe that Vanniyars might still stand behind the father than his son.

Sources told DH that Ramadoss has been considering launching a new outfit under his leadership and his daughter Sri Gandhi as his deputy but no final decision has been taken.

“If we have to assert ourselves politically, we have to be a separate outfit. But launching a party isn’t easy as Ramadoss is 85 years old and his daughter is a political novice. A lot of things have to be factored in. He is still discussing with his peers,” the source added.

The open split within the first family of the party isn't good news as political parties, especially the AIADMK, are in a bind on who to deal with in the PMK. The Dravidian party has been used to dealing with Ramadoss on alliance and has asked the PMK to resolve differences within the family before the elections.

“Moreover, we don’t want the Vanniyar votes to be split between Ramadoss and Anbumani. The reason why we align with the PMK is for their committed 5 per cent votes and if we are not assured of that, what do we do?” a senior AIADMK leader asked.

It all began in December 2024, when Anbumani publicly accused his father of promoting dynastic politics following Ramadoss’ decision to parachute one of his grandsons, Parasuraman Mukundan, into the post of youth wing chief. Since then, the two have been sparring, with the father demoting the son to working president and assuming the role of president in April 2025.

The senior Ramadoss had appointed himself as president of the PMK in April after relegating his son to working president, setting the stage for a confrontation which has played out in public over the past two months.

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

Ramadoss has been upset with the PMK’s tilt toward the BJP in recent years under Anbumani’s leadership. The party’s failure to win in its stronghold of Dharmapuri for the second consecutive Lok Sabha polls in 2024 is cited as one of the factors that led Ramadoss to rethink the party’s alliance strategy.

He wants the PMK not to dilute its core agenda of uplifting the lives of Vanniyars and to ally only with Dravidian parties, if necessary. 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, has swung like a pendulum between the DMK and AIADMK for decades, and eventually aligned with the BJP after its solo experiment failed in 2016.