An alliance nudged along by the BJP may not be enough to save the AIADMK.
Flashing toothy smiles, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami (EPS) and his predecessor O. Panneerselvam (OPS) shook hands quite vigorously at the AIADMK party headquarters in Chennai to leave no doubt that they had come together. It was a bitter break, after all. It signalled a rapprochement that the warring EPS’s AIADMK (Amma) and OPS’s AIADMK (Puratchi Thalaivi Amma) factions knew they could not avoid. The glue that cemented the alliance: ruling Tamil Nadu as the AIADMK had been mandated to when ‘supreme leader’ J. Jayalalithaa was elected in May 2016—before the party was thrown into disarray with her death in December last.
On August 21, more than six-and a-half months after they parted ways, the two joined hands while keeping out the third AIADMK faction—the one associated with the ‘Mannargudi clan’ of incarcerated interim general secretary (GS) V.K. Sasikala and her relatives, including nephew T.T.V. Dhinakaran whom she appointed deputy GS. Outwardly, what brought the first two together was EPS conceding to OPS’s demands for a judicial inquiry into the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa’s death and turning her Poes Garden home into a public memorial. They also reached an understanding on the other demand—the vexing issue of sidelining Sasikala—by initiating due process to expel her from the AIADMK and to marginalise the Mannargudi clan.
This story is from the September 04, 2017 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the September 04, 2017 edition of India Today.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Who Will Win The Mahayuddh?
In Maharashtra's Most Complex Political War Ever, Shifting Alliances Fuel A Gripping Saga Of Power Struggles And Betrayals In The Pursuit Of Votes
Grand Young Master
Seventeen-yearold D. Gukesh has become the youngest player to win the Candidates chess tournament
SPORTING SPIRIT
BADMINTON PLAYER ASHWINI PONNAPPA, 34, IS OFF TO HER THIRD OLYMPICS, THIS TIME WITH A NEW PARTNER, TANISHA CRASTO
PORTRAITS OF A PEOPLE
Etchings by the colonial Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns are getting a new lease of life in an exhibition at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
Centennial Man
A seminal exhibition of K.G. Subramanyan's works in his birth centenary year at Emami Art, Kolkata takes an imaginative and immersive curatorial approach
Rhythms of Nature
ARTIST AND MUSIC COMPOSER GINGGER SHANKAR'S LATEST SINGLE COMBINES SOUTH INDIAN MUSIC WITH INUIT THROAT SINGING
SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND
Kashmiri musician Faheem Abdullah’s debut album Lost; Found is a collaborative effort
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
With its excellent translations, Songs of Tagore makes Rabindrasangit accessible to the non-Bengali reader
Of Freedom and Friendship
T.C.A. RAGHAVAN'S CIRCLES OF FREEDOM FOLLOWS THREE YOUNG MUSLIMS DRAWN INTO THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE
The Razor's Edge
Salman Rushdie's Knife is an eloquent, first-person account of the horrific attack on him. It's also a love story