Chennai: Whoever triumphs in the February 27 by-election to the Erode East constituency and enters the State Assembly, whether it is senior Congress leader E V K S Elangovan or former AIADMK MLA K S Thennarasu, the run up to the filing of nominations has helped AIADMK’s interim general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami taste victory of a different kind, helping him consolidate his position as head honcho of the party.
Though the Supreme Court ordered the convening of the AIADMK’s old general council having members of both the present day factions, led by Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam, to select the candidate for the by-election and authorized the party presidium chairperson, Tamilmagan Hussain, to sign Form A and B of the nomination form, the verdict turned out to be one in favour of Palaniswami.
For, the candidate announced by Palaniswami unilaterally, K S Thennarasu, became the official AIADMK candidate, contesting under the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol, an iconic election symbol to which all die-hard AIADMK supporters attach emotional value. Besides, Tamilmagan Hussain was a Palaniswami acolyte.
So, whether Thennarasu sails through in the elections or not, the man who named him as the candidate established himself as the undisputed leader of the AIADMK that was seemingly in tatters when the bugle was sounded by the Election Commission of India following the passing away of sitting MLA E Thirumagan Evera.
More than vanquishing his bete noire Panneerselvam in the long drawn fight for supremacy in the party, Palaniswami has also proved that he was not under the stranglehold of the State BJP at all as it was perceived by everyone and vigorously propagated by his opponents. He managed to cast aside the ‘slave’ image, perpetuated by internet trolls and social media, with elan through his quick political maneuvering by outsmarting the BJP.
The State BJP, under the leadership of K Annamalai, had been posturing as ‘the opposition’ party in the State despite having just four MLA in the Assembly as against the AIADMK’s strength of 66, and in a bid to popularize the party had embarked on a slew of measures. So the BJP wanted to grab the opportunity to contest from Erode East by riding piggyback on the popularity of the AIADMK and then declare to the world that people have accepted it as an alternative to the DMK.
Since the seat was allocated to the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) in the 2021 Assembly elections, the BJP must have felt that it could easily prevail over TMC leader G K Vasan and seek to contest from there. But Palaniswami got the better of the BJP by striking a deal with Vasan without wasting time and announcing unilaterally that the AIADMK would be taking on the Congress candidate.
It should also be taken into account that Palaniswami, the astute politician that he has become, did not much bother about the iconic ‘Two Leaves’ symbol but instead appointed a gargantuan committee comprising all the top honchos of the party to popularize the symbol that might be thrust on it by the Election Commission of India, just in case.
So even while vigorously pursuing the legal cases seeking to establish his faction as the real AIADMK, Palaniswami had a Plan B for Erode East ready and the BJP, despite its different moves to not let the AIADMK have a walkover in the alliance, could not succeed in any way.
At one point, the AIADMK even changed the name of the coalition to ‘National Democratic Progressive Alliance’ in the banners at the election office in Erode East sending across the subtle message that it did not need the BJP’s support at all. Even senior leader C Ponnaiyan was vocal in his criticism of the BJP, accusing it of running roughshod over smaller allies all over the country.
In fact, even earlier, Palaniswami had used other party leaders like D Jayakumar and K P Munusamy to speak openly against the BJP though he kept mum, pretending to be adhering to coalition norms. Also he stoutly resisted all moves by the BJP to force him to accommodate Panneerselvam, T T V Dinakaran and V K Sasikala in the party.
Whatever made him disagree with the BJP’s belief that Panneerselvam, Dinakaran and Sasikala would strengthen the AIADMK and help channelize all the anti-DMK votes in its favour, he stood his ground firmly. Perhaps that was one reason for the majority of the party office-bearers, functionaries, workers and even low level booth committee members throwing their weight behind him, too.
But in the end, whether Palaniswami's chosen candidate defeats Elangovan or not, the by-election has helped him gain total control over the AIADMK, decimating Panneerselvam, who made the first wrong move of sitting on a ‘dharma yudham’ at the J Jayalalithaa memorial, at the behest of whoever it was, and then went on to commit successive blunders like the violent entry into the party headquarters at Lloyds Road.
