Does history repeat itself? It seems to have recently considering the mayhem unleashed at the headquarters of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), the main opposition party in Tamil Nadu.
Edappadi Palanisamy (EPS), the Chief Minister till the party lost to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the 2021 Assembly election, and O Pannerselvam (OPS) had for the past five years accepted an uneasy dual leadership structure -- with OPS as coordinator of the party and EPS as joint coordinator.
Now, the frustrated members of the general council, nudged by EPS, have seen the futility of this arrangement and desire a single leader who can effectively carry forward the party in their fight against the DMK. They argue that the party's defeat in the Assembly election and the subsequent drubbing in the local body elections were entirely due to this dichotomy and little else.
Simplistic though that argument may be, it is true that the party at its best always had a single head. First, it was MG Ramachandran, the founder, and then J Jayalalithaa, who remained the peerless leader of the AIADMK till her death on December 5, 2016.
What logic then was there to have a dual leadership, particularly when there is no coordination between the head and the tail, ran the reasoning? And why should the party be allowed to be split into two groups, weakening it even further?
The violent clashes that followed, spilling onto the streets and beyond, were a blast from the past. The only missing factor was the colour, drama, glamour and brilliance brought to the succession drama thirty-five years ago by the diva who fought alone and became MGR's unlikely heir.
Jayalalithaa Jayaram, once considered to be very close to MGR and later sidelined, triumphed in the power struggle between two unlikely candidates despite the odds being stacked against her -- as a woman, Brahmin and former actor. Her rise to power remains an extraordinary story in modern Tamil Nadu politics and is worth revisiting.
The death of MGR at the fag end of 1987 must have been paralysing for Jaya, whose debut speech in the party was on Pennin Perumai (the greatness of woman). The then thirty-eight-year-old single woman had been left without an official post by a mentor who had brought her into the party in 1982 and subsequently made her the propaganda secretary. But she had been relieved of that post even before his death thanks to the machinations of the coterie around him. And again, at that moment of transition, they were keen on annihilating her.
Pitted against these men would be the enormous goodwill Jaya had earned from the cadres by travelling across the length and breadth of the state and meeting them. The cadres called her Anni (wife of the elder brother) and believed her to be the natural successor to their beloved leader.
When MGR’s body lay in state, Jaya stood right behind for almost 21 hours, an official nonentity fighting for her rightful space. The cadres saw it all. The humiliation she suffered when she was pushed away from MGR’s carriage (see photo below) by those who posed as the protectors of the leader’s legacy was also not missed.
Jayalalithaa had won the hearts and sympathy of the cadres even before the actual power struggle began when MGR's widow, VN Janaki, a former actor turned housewife, most unexpectedly expressed the wish to be chosen as her husband's successor. The party was a divided house after that.
VR Nedunchezhiyan, the seniormost leader, should rightfully have been the successor. Jayalalithaa came forward to support him.
The Governor, however, invited Janaki to form the government on January 7, 1988 when ninety-seven AIADMK MLAs signed a memorandum supporting her and submitted it to the Governor. Janaki was required to prove her majority on the floor by January 28.
She was lucky to have the support of an unscrupulous speaker who dared to violate the Assembly norms in her favour. As the Congress and DMK stayed away, less than half the members were present for the vote. Speaker PH Pandian went on to expel thirty-three members -- supporters of Jayalalithaa -- under the 1985 anti-defection law and proclaim Janaki the winner. Pandemonium ensued.
The resultant violence in the Assembly saw police entering the august Assembly for the first time and lathi-charging the MLAs. When Jayalalithaa was informed of this, she realised that there was no time to lose. She issued a statement that democracy had been murdered and appealed to the governor to dismiss the government.
Once President’s rule was declared, all the claims of various factions became irrelevant. It was the people’s mandate that was going to have the final say.
Jayalalithaa had no clue what the outcome would be. She knew she had to work hard to garner enough votes to prove her group’s strength and snub her rivals. She restructured the front organisations of the party and launched a vigorous membership drive. She started her own journal called Namadhu MGR. She worked on charting her election strategy.
'MGR' -- those three words remained the magic mantra for the poor in Tamil Nadu. It was to be her chant and talisman. Her claim to leadership was based almost exclusively on her assertion that MGR had wanted it that way, recalling that the late leader had made her place her palm over his mother’s picture and vow never to quit politics.
Crowds, not just the cadres, thronged her meetings. Factionalism split the AIADMK votes and when the results came, the DMK came to power. But Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK faction won 27 seats and stood second ahead of the Congress that won only 26 seats.The voters had ruthlessly rejected Janaki's AIADMK.
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Shocked and shamed, Janaki accepted the people’s verdict, quit politics and her faction merged with Jayalalithaa's party, surrendering the all-important two leaves symbol and making the latter the leader of the party.
In her post-election press conference, Jayalalithaa said regally, “I am the leader of this party, and it is my utterances alone that are to be considered, not irresponsible statements made by others in the party.”
There was no one to do that anyway. Those who dared failed miserably. She was the face of the party. The party won because of her. Her charisma was such that the cadres adored her and the second-rung leaders remained terrified of her.
The present leaders lack that most important ingredient -- charisma. They may win the immediate fight by chanting her name, but they will never hold a candle to the woman who fought singlehandedly and created history by uniting a party that was in disarray and rudderless.
(Vaasanthi is an acclaimed writer and the author of biographies of two Dravidian giants -- J Jayalalithaa and M Karunanidhi. This is part of the web-only analysis columns on newindianexpress.com.)