Two weeks after the dissent, the AIADMK factions patched up on Wednesday, with the rebel camp officially claiming that there was no split in the party and that it was only a “difference of opinion”. The AIADMK legislative party had split into two factions with one led by its general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) and the other led by its Coimbatore strongman S.P. Velumani and Villupuram stalwart C.Ve.Shanmugam.
A batch of the rebel MLAs, who voted in favour of the TVK government during the trust vote on May 13, called on EPS at his residence in Chennai. While Velumani and a few others expressed their support for EPS, the absence of C.Ve. Shanmugam led to speculations. But Velumani claimed that Shanmugam was with them and there was no dissent within the party. Shortly after calling on Palaniswami, Velumani met Tamil Nadu Assembly speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar and submitted a letter, saying that there is no split within the party.
“Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy and the other MLAs who petitioned the speaker and the 22 MLAs from the rebel camp who submitted a similar petition seeking to disqualify the legislators on either sides under the anti-defection law, withdrew both our petitions,” Velumani, told the reporters after calling on EPS. He also said that EPS has agreed to consider their request to constitute a committee to review performance and probe reasons for the defeat in a phased manner.
The truce and the dissent within
Incidentally, the truce represents a high-stake defensive realignment necessitated by legislative haemorrhaging to the TVK rather than a definitive resolution of internal power asymmetries. The urgency for a truce was heightened by high-profile defections. In the past two days the party witnessed the resignations of Madurantakam MLA Maragatham Kumaravel, Perundurai MLA S. Jayakumar, Dharapuram MLA P. Sathyabama and Ambasamudram MLA Esakki Subbaiah, all of whom joined the TVK. These defections reduced the AIADMK’s assembly strength from 47 to 43.
Simultaneously, the rebel camp’s leverage collapsed as core members began a tactical retreat to the EPS fold. On May 25, five MLAs—S.M. Sukumar (Arcot), P. Hari Bhaskar (Anthiyur), K. Mohan (Panruti), Dileepan Jaishankar (Sankarankoil), and N.S.N. Nataraj (Kangayam)—switched loyalties back to EPS. They were followed on May 26 by P. Balakrishna Reddy (Hosur). These shifts reduced the rebel camp from its initial 25 to just 15 members, effectively stripping the Velumani-Shanmugam duo of their bargaining majority.
The disqualification gambit
The EPS faction, through Whip Agri S.S. Krishnamurthy, filed petitions for the disqualification of the 25 rebel MLAs under the Anti-Defection Law. The Velumani-Shanmugam camp retaliated with counter-petitions seeking to remove existing leadership and requesting the Speaker to recognise Dr C. Vijayabaskar as the new party whip. This legal stalemate created a period of administrative paralysis, leaving the party’s official status in a state of suspended animation. In the meanwhile, the ruling TVK is also said to have come up with yet another plan - disqualify all the rebel MLAs and force them to join the TVK. “Only after we heard that the speaker’s office is getting ready to disqualify all of us, we decided to get back to the parent body. We are not for a bypoll,” said one of the MLAs who returned to the EPS camp.
The TVK snub for the rebels and the promise for the defectors
Earlier on May 13, a few days before the trust vote, a few of the AIADMK MLAs, including Shanmugam, Velumani and former health minister Dr C. Vijayabhaskar, are said to have had off-the-record meetings and several rounds of discussion with the TVK high command. It was said that the Velumani camp was promised share power and also a few cabinet berths earlier. But when the DMK alliance partners including the VCK, IUML, CPI and the CPI(M) extended support, the TVK, reportedly snubbed the AIADMK rebel MLAs. As the demands from the AIADMK MLAs went up and a few of them decided to go back to the parent body, the ruling party, sources say, engineered yet another dissent.
Sources in the AIADMK say that the four MLAs who resigned and joined the TVK, were lured by the latter with the promise of power and position. While Maragatham Kumaravel, Jayakumar and Sathyabama were promised power and position, Ambasamudram MLA Esaki Subbaiah was in a legal tangle after the new government ordered shutdown of 18 stone quarries in the Tirunelveli and Tenkasi region. Reportedly, Subbaiah owns one of the quarries which came under the government action, following a major crackdown on environmental violations.