Churning process is on in Tamil Nadu
Five years after then chief minister J Jayalalithaa jettisoned her closest aide V K Sasikala’s controversial clan (which came to be called the Mannargudi mafia), the driving force in the clan TTV Dhinakaran has ironically won the seat that got vacated upon her demise.
There could not have been a bigger blow to Jayalalithaa’s legacy than this huge boost to one who she abhorred and distrusted in the ripe years of her political dominance.
That the ‘Mannargudi mafia’ would seek to don the mantle of her successor was evident when the clan led by V K Sasikala monopolised the scene as the funeral procession of Jayalalithaa wended its way to her final resting place. While Sasikala’s misdemeanours caught up with her soon after Jayalalithaa’s death, when she was convicted and jailed in a disproportionate assets case, she planted her nephew Dhinakaran to pull the strings in her party, the AIADMK.
It is no secret that Sasikala and her clan’s recorded assets have gone up manifold in the years that Jayalalithaa was at the helm and that Dhinakaran used that amassed wealth to part-finance the hugely-expensive election campaign in the R K Nagar by-election.
Politics in Tamil Nadu has for long been vitiated by large-scale corruption but the extent to which voters were doled out cash and gifts by both the Dhinakaran faction and the AIADMK of chief minister Palaniswami was mind-boggling indeed. The DMK candidate lost his deposit but even he pumped in a lot of money in the election. As for the BJP, whose nominee managed to get a mere 1200 votes, it is enigmatic what led him to contest the election.
Dhinakaran had his task cut out as he played upon the anti-Centre sentiment in the electorate which was manifest with the AIADMK being too close with the Narendra Modi government. The general feeling was that the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had done the bidding of the Centre and the State government in ‘harassing’ Dhinakaran by embroiling him in graft cases.
It is not as though Dhinakaran did not deserve the treatment he got but that he was able to cleverly use that to good effect in the election to build up an image of being hounded and harassed.
Evidently, the Centre overplayed its hand and earned the people’s wrath for itself and for the hapless puppeteers Palaniswami and deputy chief minister Panneerselvam.
It is on the cards that the candidate of AIADMK’s E Madhusudanan, of the Panneerselvam faction, suffered because the dominant Palaniswami faction in the AIADMK did not put its entire weight behind him, to spite Panneerselvam. That was, indeed, a manifestation of the power struggle within the AIADMK. The real gainer was the wily Dhinakaran.
All said and done, the Jayalalithaa legacy has been trampled upon – first by the naked lust for power of Palaniswami, Panneerselvam and Sasikala, and now by the manner in which Dhinakaran has won her erstwhile seat in the Assembly from which she ruled the State with untrammelled authority.
It would indeed be no surprise if Palaniswami now dumps Panneerselvam and aligns with Dhinakaran, taking unprincipled and opportunist politics to a new height. So exasperated is the Tamil Nadu electorate with its leaders that people in general are fed up of these theatrics.
The safeguard against that is that dumping Panneerselvam and embracing Dhinakaran could annoy the Centre which holds the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate as trump-cards in the murky game of politics that is being played in Tamil Nadu.
Whether all this would mean that the people will succumb to overtures from cine idols like Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan who are on the cusp of entering politics, it is premature to say. Kamal Hassan has a tendency to shoot his mouth off while Rajinikanth is untested in political waters.
Dhinakaran was evicted from the AIADMK along with Sasikala following a deal between AIADMK's factions led by Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS) as they merged in August. Dhinakaran and Sasikala have challenged that decision and claim to lead the real AIADMK.
Now that Dhinakaran has won the crucial electoral battle in R K Nagar on the outskirts of Chennai, he would doubtlessly step up his claim over controlling the AIADMK, jettisoning Palaniswami and Panneerselvam. His money power would predictably be in full cry and Sasikala’s support from behind the jail bars would be with no holds barred.
Even the Election Commission’s award of the AIADMK's 'two-leaves' party symbol to EPS and OPS, calling them the real AIADMK is of little consequence in the circumstances.
The DMK’s euphoria in the wake of the Special Court judgement exonerating former Telecom minister in the erstwhile Manmohan Singh government A Raja and DMK member of Parliament Kanimozhi has also been tempered by the fact that the party’s nominee was mauled in the R.K. Nagar byelection.
The BJP’s hopes now rest on Rajinikanth who is to announce his political entry and his future affiliations on December 31. The role that the BJP played in patronising the AIADMK government has not endeared it to the people. So, it would be a surprise if Rajinikanth openly decides to support the saffron party. Kamal Hassan, on his part, has already distanced himself from the BJP and has shown a preference for the DMK. That Dhinakaran is emerging as a major player is a reality. Will Rajinikanth’s entry neutralise his influence to some extent? Will the cases against Dhinakaran jeopardise his career in the foreseeable future?
Lurking behind all this drama is the DMK which perceives an opportunity. Stalin has been waiting in the wings for years and now sees power being within reach, having won the 2G scam case and with the AIADMK proving increasingly that it does not measure up to the challenge of a Tamil Nadu without Jayalalithaa.
An epic battle lies ahead, and a lot would depend on how each party plays its cards.
It is no secret that Sasikala and her clan’s recorded assets have gone up manifold in the years that Jayalalithaa was at the helm and that Dhinakaran used that amassed wealth to part-finance the hugely-expensive election campaign in the R K Nagar by-election.