Ramadoss vs Anbumani: PMK's tug-of-war leaves NDA in a fix ahead of Tamil Nadu polls

S Ramadoss removes estranged son Anbumani from PMK

A “weed called Anbumani” was removed from his party by his father, the founder of Patali Makkal Katchi (PMK) S Ramadoss, who has been engaged in a personal and political battle with his son for a year now, marking the spilling over of the personal differences in the family out in the open and effectively splitting the four decade-old party into two on Thursday.

He asked his son to start a new party since he has been removed. “This party was started by an individual (Ramadoss) and no one has the right to stake claim to it, even if it is my son,” Ramadoss said in his statement.

The confrontation between Ramadoss and Anbumani started last year before the Lok Sabha election, when the former wanted the PMK to align with the AIADMK (then not in the NDA), while the latter wanted to go with the BJP.

The PMK is a casteist party with its sway in the Vanniyar belt in northern Tamil Nadu dominated by the MBC community. Ramadoss is known for his hate words against the Dalits given the strong caste divide and untouchability practices in the region. There was an occasion when Ramadoss tried to encompass the Dalits into its fold. But PMK’s Vanniyar share came down. Since then the party has maintained its anti-Dalit stand.

PMK vote share in the state is around four percent. But their vote share is concentrated in certain segments in the northern belt. This has helped the party to be in big alliances as the major parties stand to benefit in those constituencies.

Though Ramadoss and the PMK have laid out ambitious goals for the party, they did little to achieve them. Instead, Ramadoss and Anbumani went for opportunistic alliances to gain election funding.

The PMK influence is beneficial to its alliance partners to get a vote-share advantage in ten to 20 seats. Since AIADMK and BJP are in alliance, NDA would benefit. But things seem to be in a flux for the BJP as there is turmoil in the AIADMK. In the event of AIADMK breaking away from the BJP, BJP would want to go with the Anbumani faction of the PMK.

As for the family feud, it goes beyond the choice of alliance. Ramadoss is keen to promote his grandchildren through his daughters. Last December Ramadoss appointed his daughter Gandhimathi’s son P Mukundan as PMK youth wing president. Anbumani opposed it publicly saying how a fresher in politics could be given such a post. He even threw the microphone in anger at the meeting and walked away. Irked by Anbumani’s opposition, Ramadoss demoted him from the post of president to working president of the PMK. Ramadoss himself took charge as its president.

Anbumani and his supporters have been maintaining that the general council of the party is the governing body and that Anbumani is still the president of the party. Even after the expulsion on Thursday Anbumani confidant K Balu averred: “Based on the bylaws and the communication sent by the Election Commission of India, Anbumani will continue to remain as PMK president.”

With these fast-paced developments, both the AIADMK and the BJP are watching from the sidelines, unable to finalise their alliance strategy yet. BJP seems unsure if AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami as the Chief Ministerial candidate will be able to hold the alliance together for the upcoming Assembly election in Tamil Nadu. The recent meeting between Union Ministers and senior AIADMK leader KA Sengottaiyan has shaken the AIADMK. Under such circumstances, Anbumani's PMK will have the tacit support of the BJP, while Palaniswami will hope that Ramadoss will be able to garner the Vanniyar votes for the AIADMK-led alliance.