Tamil Nadu’s bipolar politics of DMK and AIADMK over: DMK’s Palanivel Thiaga Rajan

Chennai: While announcing he was taking a “short break” from active politics, former Tamil Nadu Finance and IT Minister P T R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Monday said that the "bipolar" politics of DMK and AIADMK was over and that the state has entered into a “new era” with TVK’s victory in the Assembly polls.

In a long post on his social media account, Thiaga Rajan, a former top banker who lost the assembly elections from Madurai (Central) seat, said he would use the break to finish writing a book and accept invitations to deliver speeches across the country and elsewhere on various topics.

“…the end of the current era of bi-polar DMK/ADMK politics, and the start of a new era (over the last year). In fact, I stated that the share of state-wide votes for the TVK in the 2026 General Election would determine if this was the last election of the old era (if TVK got around 15 per cent), or the first election of the new era (if TVK got up to 25 per cent),” he wrote.

“I must admit that I never saw a scenario in which it would get to 35 per cent, as it did. In fact, I underestimated all three trends in scale and speed. We are surely in the new era - and some of us have experienced the transition through personal loss...Change is relentless, and those who cannot adapt become irrelevant,” the former minister added.

His comments came on a day PTR’s boss and DMK President M K Stalin claimed that the TVK did no field work but managed to win the April 23 Assembly polls by influencing people using social media.

PTR’s four-page note triggered speculation about his future moves with many faulting the DMK for not “using his expertise” for the whole of its five-year tenure. In the post, PTR did say he had originally planned to exit politics in 2026 but withdrew the move and contested elections only to complete unfinished projects.

A source close to PTR told DH: “He is taking a three-month break. Nothing more should be read into his statement as he wants to inform people that he won’t be active for a while. He is likely to resume his regular work from mid-August. He wants to travel abroad and deliver talks which he couldn’t due to his ministerial responsibilities.”

PTR, who comes from an illustrious family in Madurai whose members have long been associated with the Dravidian movement and DMK, lost the April 23 assembly elections to TVK’s V M S Mustafa. He was the all-powerful Finance Minister from 2021 to 2023 before he was shifted to the Information Technology portfolio after a purported audio clip of him talking about how members of the DMK’s first family were running the government and making money went viral on social media.

Giving a piece of “unsolicited advice” to Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s government, PTR said inertia (and a Status Quo mindset) is the natural tendency of all arms of government, especially the bureaucracy and everyone feels comfortable doing the same things they have already done.

“But such an approach has been the core failure of democratically elected governments worldwide, especially over the last two decades…If they are to succeed, they must fight against this mindset. Use the great opportunity of a new beginning, a clean slate, to boldly drive reform in every aspect of the way the Government functions,” he said.

The former top banker said he was looking forward to a few weeks of time-off of life as a private citizen wholly in control of his time and schedule, while noting that he could not afford the time for many requests to visit and give talks across India.

He also said he was denied the necessary permission on multiple occasions to travel overseas to accept invitations to lecture or participate in events. A break allows him to answer long-standing requests across the US, Europe, Singapore and Australia.

“As mentioned earlier, I am already behind the originally committed schedule on a book I have contracted to publish with Harper Collins and will use this time to write. And having reached 60 recently, I hope to focus on a more regular schedule and improved lifestyle, to further improve my health,” PTR added.