Chennai: After the rout in the Assembly elections, many DMDK functionaries are unhappy with party leader Vijayakanth’s wife Premalatha for shutting doors on DMK and they are asking the actor to bring his younger son Shanmuga Pandian in a veiled attempt to keep Premalatha out of party affairs.
Vijayakanth has been reviewing the party’s drubbing in the Vanniyar belt for the last one week. The DMDK occupied the third place in only eight seats out of the 100 seats in north Tamil Nadu comprising 10 districts-Chennai, Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Salem.
If Chennai is excluded from Vanniyar belt, Vijayakanth’s party has managed to get the third position in only six out of 84 seats, while its rival PMK had won the third place in 61 seats and second place in three constituencies. Commenting on the debacle, a district functionary said, “We were hoping for an alliance with DMK and suddenly the leadership had a tie-up with the PWA. The decision came as a shock to the cadre, who stayed away from the campaign and voting”. The dissatisfaction of DMDK functionaries with Premalatha found expression in their demand to bring Shanmuga Pandian into the party.
According to partymen, the future of the party could be entrusted with Shanmuga Pandian since he is young and being groomed as Vijayakanth’s heir in films.
He is acting in his second movie Thamizhan Endru Sol with his father also playing a major role. Vijayakanth could carve out a career for Shanmuga Pandian in films and the young actor could also be used to revive the party, some party functionaries feel.
In Premalatha’s native of Vellore district, PMK votes were more than thrice of the DMDK, which also got only about one-fourth of what the PMK obtained in Dharmapuri district. The DMDK slipped behind the PMK in eight of 11 seats in Villupuram, which was a stronghold. Partymen do not believe that this trend could be reversed by Premalatha or her brother Sudeesh.
