Dynastic succession of a perennial wannabe CM

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Published : May 28, 2022, 9:28 PM IST

Dynastic succession of a perennial wannabe CM

On his son, Anbumani, ascending to the mantle as party chief, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Ramadoss senior, wiped the tears of joy rolling down his cheeks. Well, this formalizes his de facto position. But, the OBC Vanniyar-dominant party is at a crossroads at this juncture as the leadership is fighting its back to the wall to retain its support base and electoral relevance. In order to arrest this decline, the father-son duo has been selling the dream of the party capturing power and Anbumani becoming the Chief Minister to its core constituency, the Vanniyars, concentrated in Northern Tamil Nadu. Writes ETV Bharat's, MC Rajan.

Chennai: One more dynastic succession in a party stuck in identity politics making it a family affair. As expected, former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, now a Rajya Sabha MP, took over the reins of the PMK. Succeeding the pliable party veteran GK Mani, he was earlier the party's youth wing leader. Now that the Ramadoss senior is in his sunset years, the coronation can't wait any longer. As the morale of the party is at its lowest following successive electoral defeats and desertion in the ranks, this elevation is expected to resurrect its fortunes.

As the new president, he faces an enormous task. Known as a party hopper, Ramadoss senior had switched alliances and now the PMK is without allies having snapped its ties with the AIADMK and fighting the civic polls on its own. Anbumani, who was defeated in the party's stronghold Dharmapuri, was elected to the Rajya Sabha as per an earlier poll pact with the AIADMK. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the DMK won handsomely in the Vanniyar belt, exposing the PMK's dwindling social base. Then the abysmal performance of the party in the subsequent civic polls proved to be a reality check for the father-son duo.

The outgoing president GK Mani, a trusted lieutenant of the Ramadoss family, has been holding that office for 25 years, helping to overcome the splits in the PMK. According to party sources, it was Mani who himself proposed the elevation of Anbumani.

Ever since the electoral reverses, Ramadoss senior had been urging the cadre to work with the aim of capturing power. “We have so much youth in the party. At conferences and other events, the youth are swarming. But, it does not get reflected in the electoral arena. 33 years have passed since the PMK was founded. I want to see the party hold the reins of power in the state,” the 82-year-old doctor had said on a few occasions.

In his view, the Vanniyars are the single largest community in the state and it has not got its due. But the PMK had never been able to muster more than 5 percent vote share and at best, it could only survive in an alliance with either the DMK or the AIADMK. In the assembly elections, it contested in the AIADMK-led alliance and won only five seats.

The Chief Ministerial ambition of Anbumani is not new. As early as 2015, the PMK launched a massive campaign across the state projecting him as the CM face in the 2016 assembly elections. The poll campaign too was modeled on former US President Obama's campaign. Interestingly, Ramadoss presented his son with a pen with a wish, knowing fully well that the latter could hardly accomplish it.

With that pen, Anbumani was to sign the first file as Chief Minister! For nearly a decade, the cadre has been fed with the notion that he alone would make a better Chief Minister of the Dravidian land. Well, it has been revived now with the purpose of Vanniyar consolidation.

Analysts, who dismiss it with derision, are of the view that the PMK being a sub-regional party with its sphere of influence confined to only the northern districts of the state, selling this dream is aimed at keeping its flock from further desertion.

“A CM from our ranks is expected to cut ice with the community if not with others. Left without allies, even earlier, it had resorted to an anti-Dalit mobilization which had failed miserably,” says R Thirunavukkarasu teaching sociology at the University of Hyderabad, adding that the party is attempting to make it relevant and appealing to its constituency.

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