The AIADMK, on Monday, named two of its senior leaders—K.P. Munusamy and M. Thambidurai—and Tamil Maanila Congress president G.K. Vasan as the candidates to the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on March 26. While the nominations of Munusamy and Thambidurai were on expected lines, the selection of Vasan irked some senior leaders in AIADMK, who were expecting a ticket.
In a joint press statement issued on Monday, party coordinator O. Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K. Palaniswami named Munusamy, Thambidurai and Vasan. Munusamy, popularly known as KPM within the party circles, has been quite active after the death of Jayalalithaa, right from ensuring a merger between the two factions in the party. He is also the party’s assistant coordinator. Thambidurai, who had served as the Lok Sabha deputy speaker, was a natural choice as he would be the voice of the AIADMK and also act as a bridge between the AIADMK and the ruling BJP in the Centre. However, Vasan’s nomination has come as a surprise for the AIADMK seniors.
Six Rajya Sabha members from Tamil Nadu will retire on April 2. While DMK nominated three members a week ago, there were high expectations within the AIADMK, with several names doing the rounds. Seniors like Gokula Indira, Natham Viswanathan and A.C. Shanmugam, who contested and lost from the Vellore Lok Sabha constituency, were seen as probable candidates. The AIADMK was also under pressure to maintain its political bonhomie with the ruling BJP. There were rumours that a BJP senior from Tamil Nadu might be nominated. However, Vasan’s nomination has now put an end to all the speculations and also strengthened AIADMK’s bond with the BJP.
“It was because of the BJP’s high command the AIADMK has given a ticket to G.K. Vasan. It is a known fact that Vasan is a born admirer of the BJP top brass in Delhi. He will be the voice of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha and not the AIADMK,” lamented a senior AIADMK leader who was a ticket aspirant.
Vasan, sources in the AIADMK say, was the choice of the BJP, as he might be a force to attract the disgruntled elements in the Tamil Nadu Congress party. While Vasan is looked at as a non-controversial, soft-spoken leader, he is not a charismatic leader who can win votes. He is the son of
G.K. Moopanar, one of Congress stalwarts in Tamil Nadu who used to be highly influential in determining the politics in the Centre. Vasan, who was first nominated to the Rajya Sabha by Sonia Gandhi, was the Union minister of shipping during UPA II. However, he floated his Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) again in November 2014, after claiming that the Congress high command ignored Tamil Nadu. In 2002, after the death of his father he had merged his TMC with the Congress. Moopanar had, in 1996, formed the TMC, as a breakaway faction, in protest against the party high command’s decision to align with the AIADMK.
However, two decades later, the AIADMK leaders say Vasan is at the mercy of the AIADMK to walk into the upper house. But, Vasan’s nomination reduces the AIADMK’s numbers in the upper house. The AIADMK, which had 11 MPs in the Rajya Sabha, will now have only seven MPs. Sasikala Pushpa who was due to retire in March had already joined BJP. Although four AIADMK seats have fallen vacant,with the existing MLA strength, the party can nominate only three MPs, which would have increased its strength to 10. But AIADMK has nominated only two of its members as MPs, reducing its strength to seven.
“Our Amma never encouraged dynasty politics. Now we have given tickets to Anbumani Ramadoss and G.K. Vasan. And our lone Lok Sabha MP again is OPS’s son. The very idea of nominating Vasan is to elevate him as a minister of state, during the likely cabinet expansion after the ongoing Parliament session. By this the BJP is also for dynasty politics,” says a former AIADMK MP, who doesn’t want to be named.
In October 2021, another AIADMK MP, Gokula Krishnan from Puducherry is due to retire. This will again will reduce the party’s strength to six. If the DMK-Congress combine continues to win the elections in Puducherry in 2021, the AIADMK might lose its lone MP to the upper house from Puducherry. In 2022, four more AIADMK MPs will retire, which again can be won back only if AIADMK gets the required number of MLAs in the state in the ensuing assembly polls in 2021.