When the MLAs who pledged support to AIADMK general secretary V K Sasikala were ferried on buses to the MLA Hostel here to collect clothes, then to the home of a senior minister and finally to the luxurious resort outside Chennai, it was a surreal moment for those from the current generation who have not yet seen these political montages of herding, holding and escaping in Tamil Nadu politics.
But be assured, this is far from new.
The last time such a rebellion was staged was after AIADMK founder and former chief minister M G Ramachandran died, leading to pitched factional feud between his wife Janaki Ramachandran and protégé and Rajya Sabha member J Jayalalithaa. It was much more intense and bitter. Janaki’s faction had 96 MLAs, while Jayalalithaa camp counted 33, and there were poaching attempts all around. The members, it became clear, had to be protected.
The ongoing strife within the AIADMK is bringing back the memories for S D Ugamchand, the then chairman of Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board who was in charge of the safety of these MLAs. He is now the president of DMK’s minorities’ welfare wing. In a conversation with T Muruganandham, Ugamchand recalls the story of those 20 days that were spent in three states, on vans and cars and even chartered flights, to avoid the MLAs being ‘kidnapped’.
After MGR died on December 24, 1987, the party split into two factions – one led by MGR’s wife Janaki Ramachandran and another by J Jayalalithaa. Janaki faction had the support of 96 MLAs, while Jayalalithaa faction had 33, including six ministers – V R Nedunchezhiyan, ‘Panruti’ S Ramachandran, K Rajaram, C Aranganayagam, S Thirunavukkarasu (now Thirunavukkarasar, the president of Tamil Nadu Congress Committee) and R Soundararajan.
The Janaki faction MLAs were accommodated at Hotel President in Mylapore, and the rebels were at Adyar Park hotel. Days after MGR’s death, as I was engaged in works at TWAD Board office, Ulundurpet MLA Anandan came rushing and said rivals tried to take him away. Following this, I called up Thirunavukkarasar and others to discuss the matter.
Soon afterwards, on January 1, another MLA, Shanmugam from Tiruttani, was taken away by the Janaki faction. Following a tip-off that the car in which he was being taken was passing through Poonamallee High Road, Thirunavukkarasar, Sengottaiyan and I, along with others waited at Karayanchavadi to catch them on the road.
However, Shanmugam was taken to Ramavaram Gardens (Janaki’s residence) through another route and we thus missed one MLA. Then sitting there in the car, Thirunavukkarasar proposed the idea of taking MLAs with us on a tour to avoid poaching.
Of the 33 MLAs, the nine senior leaders stayed in Chennai. The rest 24 headed to Bengaluru. But late Jeppiar, the then chairman of Metrowater, who was in the Janaki faction, got wind of the plan and sent his men to ‘retrieve’ the MLAs.
We managed to prevent that with police assistance. From there, the MLAs were taken by bus to Mumbai, where we spent the next two days. We visited Nasik and then Dulia, a district headquarters in Maharashtra. Jeppiar’s men tracked our movement and followed us there, too, but we were able to thwart their attempts. After this, we went to Indore on January 6, where the then chief minister Motilal Vora helped us with police security.
Since the MLAs wanted to be with their family on Pongal, we booked a chartered flight from Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram. We reached the spinning mill of the then minister K K S S R Ramachandran by bus on January 13.
The next day, the MLAs celebrated Pongal at the mill with their family. We returned to Chennai on January 24, after which the MLAs stayed in two groups – at the residences of KKSSR and Thirunavukkarasar. On January 28, Janaki lost the confidence motion in the State Assembly and her government was dissolved on January 30.