Emerging New Political Realignments in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: The former Chief Minister O Panneerselvam and DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakanth calling on Chief Minister M K Stalin separately on Thursday ostensibly to enquire about his health with both claiming to have not discussed politics at all has more than it meets the eye, given the timing of the meetings.

Coming close in the heels of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two day sojourn in Tamil Nadu, both the political leaders who were part of the BJP-led NDA were apparently disillusioned over the treatment meted out to them by the BJP and possibly the AIADMK during the visit or did not get a commitment from the BJP top brass on getting a place of importance in the alliance.

Pannerselvam had been seen as someone who should be kept at an arm’s length by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami ever since he was thrown out of the party in July 2022. Though the BJP had always wanted to keep Pannnerselvam and his rebel group in the fold, Palaniswami had been resisting it always.

In the case of DMDK, though it was with the AIADMK when it contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the revival of the AIADMK-BJP tie-up in April changed the equations though the AIADMK claimed that the alliance was intact. The AIADMK’s refusal to give a seat in the Rajya Sabha to the DMDK did not go well with Premalatha Vijayakanth, who was expecting a better deal from the BJP.

Now that she had driven down all the way to Stalin’s house to enquire about his health raises a slew of questions as such a culture does not exist in the State’s political dynamics as courtesy calls by opposition camp leaders are not seen as acceptable gestures.

Even if one were to believe that Premalatha Vijayakanth wanted to break the toxic practice of not being friendly with opposition camp leaders, the timing raises the doubts, though it might be too early to conclude that the DMDK was shifting loyalties.

However in the case of Panneerselvam, there is very little room for doubt over the purpose of the visit. It is a bid only to build bridges with the DMK even if the alliance and the conditions for it might not have been finalized. For, Panneerselvam has always been an AIADMK functionary since the days of J Jayalaithaa and has been raised on a staple diet of anti-DMK political sentiments.

Also in the more than three years that he had been out of the AIADMK he had been waging only a legal war against his ouster, wanting to recapture the leadership of the AIADMK with a slew of other leaders backing him and never looked for political rehabilitation through another party. So, he had no reason to show bonhomie with Chief Minister M K Stalin now.

So if he trooped down to Stalin’s house with his faction’s honchos it was only because he did not see any more hope in fighting a legal battle with the AIADMK or in expecting benevolence from the BJP. So now he wants to fight the AIADMK with the support of the DMK.

While it is premature to speculate on both the Panneerselvam faction and the DMDK joining the DMK-led alliance because both the parties could be demanding their pound of flesh from the DMK, which it might not be able to accede to if its present allies continued to remain with it, anything could happen in the next months. After all no one would have predicted even two weeks back that Panneerselvam would meet Stalin.