JUST SPAMMING | A year that made politics more farcical than ever

The dying year saw several nagging doubts in politics getting cleared. In its fag end, 2024 saw BJP State President K Annamalai flogging himself with a white coloured whip in public, making a fool of himself, and a few months before that a long time doubt over actor Vijay taking the plunge into the murky political waters was cleared. In the peak of summer, the Lok Sabha elections proved that the BJP’s popularity was in decline and that the DMK has consolidated its position in two ways in the State. One is that it, despite the claims of naysayers, was still the preferred party in the present context and two, it has managed to keep its flock, read alliance partners, together.

Still rumours and speculations continued to float all through the year, particularly on some sections of social media channels, that the alliance was fragile and that it will break anytime and they were put to rest just before the closing of the year by Chief Minister M K Stalin, who, attending a function marking veteran Communist leader R Nallakannu, proclaimed the alliance was not just built on principles but to last forever. So, the doubts of those, who were speculating and wishing that some of the DMK’s allies will drift away and strengthen the hands of either the AIADMK or the newly formed Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam of Vijay or both for the 2026 Assembly elections were cleared: It is unlikely to happen.

Earlier, too, such doubts were raised in the context of the VCK, which in fact turned out to be an intriguing phase in State politics. For some time it was like a cliffhanger when the VCK was hitting out at the DMK for not bringing in total prohibition and preparing itself for a conference against alcohol and narcotics. It was seen as an arm twisting tactic as the party’s then deputy general secretary Aadhav Arjuna was demanding sharing in power for the VCK. A series of such incidents that included VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan openly saying that more than the alliance it was prohibition that was important for them.

But everyone knew it was Aadhav Arjuna, who had incidentally become popular as a politician only in 2024, behind the threats and blamed Thirumavalavan for not quelling him. Anyway Arjuna was quelled when he was suspended from the party when he addressed a meeting attended by Vijay and organized by a Tamil media group to speak out against the DMK. Arjuna disassociated himself from the party completely though he was earlier advocating it to seek a share in the power pie. However since both Arjuna and Vijay were sharing the same platform –for Vijay it was the second political appearance in public after the launch of his own party a few months earlier.

Whether the party was prepared for a real political fight in the electoral arena was a doubt that was raised when it was launched and even after that. Since the Assembly polls were more than a year away, no one could give a definite answer immediately. But the passing of Congress leader E V K S Elangovan, who was the sitting MLA of Erode East constituency, gave some clarity on that issue. Many believed that Vijay would make use of the by-election that would be, anyway, held and prove his party’s mettle the way the late M G Ramachandran (MGR) made use of the Dindigul by-election to launch his nascent party on the election scene. But Vijay, it seems, has no such idea to test the electoral waters, anywhere, as of now and was still in the process of drawing up strategy and issuing media releases for specific issues.

Even on the latest tragedy that the State witnessed on December 23, when a local rogue raped an engineering student inside the Anna university campus, Vijay had something to say just like all the top politicians who reacted to the shocking incident. It was that crime that also revealed that the opposition parties were waiting to create a scandal that they believe would besmirch the image of the present government and prevent the DMK from coming back to power. So they raised a plethora of questions on the incident. It also angered K Annamalai immensely that he decided to go for a novel protest, something that no one has ever attempted in the State.

So in the presence of his supporters and the media, Annamalai whipped himself in public before his house in Coimbatore. He said it was to draw the attention of the government, which of course was seized of the matter and was responding to court cases regarding that. Also, Annamalai, who felt that such crimes against women were on the rise because the State was ruled by the DMK, announced that he would use footwear till the ruling party was ousted from power. He even walked out barefoot from the press conference where the announcement was made. To put it otherwise, politics became more farcical in 2024 as it was evident from the spat in the PMK, between founder S Ramadoss and president Anbumani Ramadoss, over the appointment of the youth wing secretary. Ramadoss proposed his daughter’s son for the post, lying vacant after his son became the president of the party, but his son and uncle of the nominated person opposed it while the father (and grandfather of the nominated person) dug in his heels.