Chennai:
The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu will be crucial for AIADMK General Secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS).
After party coordinator and former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam (OPS) was ousted from the party along with his supporters in the July 11, 2022 meeting of the AIADMK’s General Council, the party is solely under the control of Palaniswami and his close associates
As the AIADMK snapped ties with the BJP in September 2023, it had to be content to have small parties like the DMDK, the SDPI, and the PT as its allies in these elections, while the party contested the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections in alliance with the BJP and the PMK.
With the BJP and the PMK allying with the OPS faction now, there was a general perception that the AIADMK would not be able to pose any challenge to the ruling DMK and its allies in the Lok Sabha polls.
However, the party, under Palaniswami put up a spirited fight with him shouldering the entire responsibility of the election campaign, crisscrossing the entire state and delivering scathing attacks on Chief Minister M.K. Stalin and the DMK.
It remains to be seen how his campaign has helped his party’s poll prospects.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK won only one seat – Theni, contested by P. Ravindhranathan, the son of OPS.
If the AIADMK fails to get any seats now and NDA candidate T.T.V. Dhinakaran wins the poll from the AIADMK stronghold of Theni, then, the situation would be difficult for Palaniswami.
If such a situation arises, OPS, expelled interim General Secretary, V.K. Sashikala, and Dhinakaran could join together and try to take over the AIADMK.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the AIADMK received 30.56 per cent of votes and only one seat and in the 2021 Assembly elections, 33.29 per cent votes and 66 Assembly seats.
The AIADMK was in power in Tamil Nadu from 2011 till 2021 and the percentage of votes and the number of seats even after ten years in power has given an impression that it cannot be written off.
Talking to IANS, Chennai think tank Centre For Policy and Development Studies’s Director C. Rajeev said: “This is a crucial election for EPS and if the AIADMK fails to win any seat and if Dhinakaran gets elected from Theni Lok Sabha seat as an NDA candidate, there can be churning in AIADMK and Dhinakaran and OPS will try to take over the party. This situation will not be comfortable for EPS.” AGENCIES
