Tamil Nadu politics: AIADMK leader and former MP Maitreyan joins ruling DMK party

Chennai: In the continuing migration from the party, senior AIADMK leader Dr. V Maitreyan, a close aide of the late J Jayalalithaa and her point man in national politics for two decades, on Wednesday quit the party to join arch-rival Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

Maitreyan, who is the third leader from the AIADMK, after Anwar Raajaa and Karthik Thondaman, in the past month to join the DMK, blamed the party’s alliance with the BJP and the lack of respect for old-timers under general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami’s leadership.

Life has come full circle for Maitreyan, an oncologist with deep roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), who quit the BJP and joined the AIADMK in 1999 after the saffron party entered into an alliance with the DMK.

Maitreyan, who emerged as a close confidante of Jayalalithaa, was nominated to the Rajya Sabha thrice (2002–2019) and was the party’s floor leader in the Upper House for a long time before he was sacked from the post in 2014.

He was the AIADMK’s face in New Delhi but felt sidelined after the death of the former chief minister in 2016 and initially owed allegiance to rebel AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam before shifting to Palaniswami’s camp and returning to his parent party in 2023. However, he rejoined the AIADMK in 2024 and was appointed as Organising Secretary.

After he joined the DMK in the presence of Chief Minister M K Stalin, Palaniswami expelled Maitreyan from the AIADMK. Though Maitreyan’s exit is unlikely to cause any significant dent to the AIADMK, it will strengthen the DMK’s claim that senior leaders are upset with Palaniswami’s decision to ally with the BJP for the 2026 assembly election.

Maitreyan will be useful for the DMK in its outreach to Brahmins, a community with which the party has never enjoyed good ties, ahead of the 2026 elections. The grapevine is that Maitreyan will now compete with S. Ve. Shekhar, a comedian-turned-politician, for the Mylapore assembly seat dominated by Brahmins -- while the latter is still technically with the BJP, he continues to praise Stalin and enjoys good ties with the DMK.

Maitreyan’s exit comes at a time when the AIADMK and BJP are openly debating the composition of the government to be formed if the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) were to win the 2026 polls. Raajaa and Thondaman, who quit the AIADMK, also blamed Palaniswami for their decision to join the DMK.

“The contest in the 2026 assembly is for the second position as it is clear that the DMK will emerge victorious. The path that the AIADMK is taking isn’t right. The alliance with BJP was announced by Amit Shah, not Palaniswami. They talk about a common minimum programme (CMP), so how can there be convergence of thoughts on issues like language policy?” he asked.

“Delhi has the switchboard. The AIADMK leadership just does what Delhi wants them to do,” he added.