It’s Party Time for EPS

AMONG THE UNPRECEDENTED images of the cosmos captured by the James Webb Space Telescope that were released by NASA on July 12 is a gorgeous, full-colour glimpse of the Southern Ring Nebula, a shell of gas and dust expelled over thousands of years by a dying star 2,000 light years from us. “Some stars save the best for last,” NASA wrote in an article on the dying star’s “final performance”. “In thousands of years, these delicate layers of gas and dust will dissipate into surrounding space.” Closer home, a southern nebula that had been expelling much gas and dust over the past few years was approaching its own dramatic end. Former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s death in December 2016 was the cosmic event that had set off the slow decay of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as a leader-centric party. With its nuclear material all used up, AIADMK had slowly been shedding its layers and turn­ing into a nebula in electoral politics.

In its golden jubilee year, AIADMK, under Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) and O Panneerselvam (OPS), put on a show of unity. But for all the preening, one could not have mistaken it for the bherunda, the fierce two-headed mythical bird. Double trouble escalated as Palaniswami, 69, who had been handpicked by former Jayala­lithaa aide and aspiring succes­sor VK Sasikala, sidestepped her to build his own brand within the party while Pan­neerselvam, Amma’s preferred stand-in, remained just that. Now, Palaniswami has paved the way to formally take sole control of the party even as his second-in-command—a distant second—makes an exasperated bid to challenge him. On July 11, the party, in its General Council, expelled OPS from its primary membership and his post of treasurer. OPS had approached the high court to stall the meeting of the General Council, to no avail. The General Council also made EPS the interim general secretary of the party, vesting him with the powers of both party coordinator and joint coordinator. Outraged, OPS’ supporters, in what appeared to be premeditated acts of violence, clashed with EPS’ men and staked claim to the party office before it was sealed by the revenue department. If OPS’ dharmayuddham against Sasikala’s chief ministerial candidature in 2017, leading up to his reconciliation with EPS, was cringe-inducing, moving the courts claiming con­trol of what is already beyond his control, is awkward. EPS, who had led the party to win 66 seats in a losing Assembly election last year, has the numbers, while OPS has the support of just a couple of MLAs and may even have to give up the post of deputy leader of the Opposition. Post this long-pending surgery on the Siamese twins of the post-Jayalalithaa AIADMK, OPS must now use his newfound freedom to assert himself anew or risk losing whatever honest-to-goodness support he has left.

Now, as another leader prepares to take charge, what is also true is that the nature of political belief has changed. The Tamil people, who were once dangerously credulous and taken in by bold, charismatic leaders like MGR, Jayalalithaa, and M Karunanidhi, are no longer acolytes in a cult. Transactional, informed, and result-oriented in their electoral behaviour, they seem to back leaders like EPS and Chief Minister MK Stalin, whose messaging is all about getting the job done

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It takes serious political chops to not just pip your own boss to the chief ministerial chair, but to take him along as joint coordinator of the party, induct him into your cabinet and then slowly render him irrelevant and ineffective. A mere district secretary of the party when he was elected Legislature Party leader in 2017, EPS, it must be said, is now a poster child for intra-party democracy. If he can cleverly negotiate the landmines litter­ing the landscape in the after­math of his ascendancy, he will be better placed to serve in the Opposition and to liaise with and counter BJP as it prepares for the Lok Sabha polls with K Annamalai as the face of the party in the state. To his credit, EPS starts on a forward-looking note, shrugging off the dust of the ages to proclaim himself interim general secretary—a post that stood vacant until now in honour of Jayalalithaa. Freed of the responsibility of being the eternal general secretary, perhaps Jayalalithaa can now finally rest easy in the afterlife. After all, she had taken over the party under similar circumstances upon her mentor and AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran’s death in 1987. The building on Avvai Shanmugam Salai in Chennai was home to MGR and his widow Janaki before it became the party office. When Janaki and Jayalalithaa each staked claim to it, it was sealed until the latter emerged as the single undisputed leader. EPS, too, will have to prove himself fair and square in the next elections, but before that, he has to work out more than a few kinks. Despite the bulwark of support that he has received from party functionaries, there is the possibility of dissent by the Mukkulathor people. EPS, a Gounder from Salem district, has attempted to pre-empt this by appointing a representative from the community, Dindigul C Srinivasan, in OPS’ place as treasurer, but he will have to revisit the vexed question of caste in the months to come. The 2017 court case involving a break-in at Jayalalithaa’s Kodanad bungalow could also come back to haunt him. And last but not the least, OPS may appeal to the courts to freeze the iconic “two leaves” symbol, and he may yet have other cards up his sleeve. For starters, how did he manage to keep the police away from the party headquarters as his men brawled and endangered people in the vicinity? So far, the biggest knock against OPS is his failure to grow his influence beyond the 10 per cent Mukkulathor vote base, but should he be suspected of joining hands with those in power to gain an advantage over his rival, there will be no mistaking where the average AIADMK supporter’s allegiance will lie.

Power is not only the simple relationship between the manipulator and the manipulated; it is a reversible web of relations that goes beyond formal politics. A star was once born who espoused equal opportunity for all, except in his own party. But, MGR’s AIADMK arguably shone brightest under his self-styled successor Jayalalithaa who ruled over an army of servile lieutenants and millions of party workers. And now, as another leader prepares to take charge, what is also true is that the nature of political belief has changed. The Tamil people, who were once dangerously credulous and taken in by bold, charismatic leaders like MGR, Jayalalithaa, and M Karunanidhi, are no longer acolytes in a cult. Transactional, informed, and result-oriented in their electoral behaviour, they seem to back leaders like EPS and Chief Minister MK Stalin, whose messaging is all about getting the job done. Among the things that EPS hopes to get done as he chairs the party MLAs’ meet on July 17 is to ensure OPS is reduced to a mere PS in the history of AIADMK.

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