AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran's will may hold key to ongoing leadership tussle
CHENNAI: Amid an intense legal battle centring around AIADMK leadership, political analyst Tharasu Shyam says the key to the impasse lies in the will of party founder MG Ramachandran, wherein he said that in case of a split in the party, the faction with the support of 80 per cent of the primary members should be treated as the AIADMK.
"The only way to ascertain whether a leader has such support is to conduct an election. It is possible with modern technology. All AIADMK leaders who claim to be treading the path of MGR should agree to such an election on moral grounds," Shyam told The New Indian Express.
He recalled that after the death of MGR, his will was read out at a press conference on January 9, 1988, in the presence of his wife Janaki Ramachandran, and the then AIADMK presidium chairman EV Vallimuthu.
In his will, MGR said his shareholdings and other assets with Sathya Studios should go to the AIADMK on the condition that 80 per cent of party members work together. "If the party splits or stands dissolved, the executors of my will should use my shareholdings in Sathya Studio etc. to maintain the trust running in his name for the deaf," MGR said in his will.
Shyam explained that MGR made it a permanent rule that the party general secretary should be elected by primary members, and Jayalalithaa too asserted this later. Generally, the will is about the assets of a person. But in his will, MGR expressed concern about the party's welfare and allocated resources to maintain it.
Shyam said MGR could have simply said 80 per cent of shareholdings should go to the faction that has the support of the majority. Instead, by insisting that 80 per cent of members work together, MGR indicated his wish that the party function under one strong leadership. Also, by insisting that 80 per cent of members work together, MGR wanted to safeguard the rights of the party’s primary members forever.
Meanwhile in Tiruchy, former AIADMK minister KP Krishnan said Palaniswami and Panneerselvam should conduct a poll among the party's primary members to elect a leader. "Since the election of all office-bearers has not been ratified by the June 23 GC meeting, there are no office-bearers now and everyone is just a primary member of the party," Krishnan said.