Is Tamil Nadu running out of leaders?
Tamil Nadu needs an effective political party to lead the state. It is also looking for an effective opposition to counter what it describes as the ‘misdeeds’ of the TVK, led by Joseph Vijay, formerly known as Ilaya Thalapathy (Tamil for “Young Commander”). The name Thalapathy was the moniker for M K Stalin, former chief minister and reigning proprietor of the DMK. He used to enjoy being addressed as Thalapathy by his followers and fans. Hence, the fans of Joseph Vijay coronated him as Ilaya Thalapathy in the hope that once the ailing Stalin leaves for Mareena Beach, the former would step into the vacancy and emerge as Thalapathy.
The All India Anna Dravida Munnettra Kazhakam (AIADMK), founded by Maruthur Gopala Menon Ramachandran (MGR) in 1972, is on ventilator support and is in a state of comatose. It is waiting to be declared brain dead so that the last rites can be performed without delay. The party with Two Leaves as a symbol has outlived its utility by 2021, a year before its 49th year. Jayalalithaa Jayaram, who succeeded MGR as party supremo following his demise in 1987 (with a year’s interregnum), elevated the AIADMK as Tamil Nadu’s largest political outfit. She was the monarch of everything she surveyed, and she knew her limitations. Jayalalithaa was the chief minister during 1991-1996, 2001-2006, 2011-2016, and was the darling of the masses.
DMK’s Karunanidhi could become the chief minister only because the voters fell out with Jayalalithaa for her autocratic style of functioning. The 1996 Assembly poll was proof of the voters’ anger towards her style of functioning, and V K Sasikala was solely responsible for the state of affairs. Though she was voted out in the 2006 Assembly poll, the truth is that there was no winner in that election. The DMK managed to win just 96 seats out of the 234 that were at stake. To rule Tamil Nadu, one needs 118 MLAs. But Karunanidhi could become the chief minister with the support of fringe parties like the Congress, the Communists, the VCK, and other hardcore Tamil outfits. He was in the chair for five years despite Jayalalithaa taunting him as the leader of a minority government. The tenure 2006-2011 marked his last innings as chief minister, and he knew well that the end was near. During 2011-2016, Jayalalithaa headed the AIADMK government. With her demise in 2016, the golden era of the AIADMK came to an end as a result of an internal turf war fought between wannabe chief ministers like Edappadi Palaniswami, O Panneerselvam, TTV Dhinakaran, Dindigul Srinivasan, Natham Viswanathan, and the like. The AIADMK, which swept the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, winning 37 out of the 39 constituencies, was literally vaporized in the 2019 edition as the DMK-led front laughed all the way to Delhi, pocketing 38 out of the 39 constituencies, leaving a lone seat to the AIADMK.
The 2024 Lok Sabha poll saw the AIADMK biting the dust again as the DMK-led front made a clean sweep of all the 39 constituencies, which sounded the death knell of the party once presided over by Jayalalithaa. But the leaders of this party failed to see the writing on the wall. EPS, as Palaniswami is known in Tamil Nadu and who became the chief minister in 2017 by default, thought that the state was his fiefdom and paid scant respect to his advisors and senior leaders in AIADMK. His hopes of winning the 2026 Assembly election also ended in failure as a political greenhorn by the name Joseph Vijay emerged victorious and was sworn in as chief minister. If the last one month’s record is any indication, the cine actor-turned-politician is going to get bombed at the box office.
Palaniswami’s intransigence in being flexible and taking the alliance partners into confidence saw the AIADMK getting decimated for the third time in succession (2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the Assembly elections held in 2021 and 2026). In Malayalam, there is a term SOMEPOOJYAN used to describe persons who successively lose polls. Palaniswami is Tamil Nadu’s somepoojyan!
After the 2026 Assembly polls, the AIADMK is witnessing a mass exodus from the party to Joseph Vijay’s outfit TVK and Stalin’s DMK. Many former ministers who are the regional satraps left the party in search of green pastures. Palaniswami is trying to coronate his son as the political heir, and this has added to the speed of the exodus. It is time EPS understood the fact that he has no leadership qualities and should opt out of active politics, as his time is up. The disintegration of the AIADMK commenced in 2021, a year before its golden anniversary. Now, not a single day passes in the state without news of some former ministers or MLAs jumping the fence and moving over to the TVK, leaving a sulking EPS.
Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin has no agenda other than destroying Sanatan Dharma. A Raja, popularly known as Spectrum Raja for obvious reasons, is the political tuition master of Udhayanidhi, and the former is playing the role of Sakuni to the satisfaction of Stalin’s enemies in the DMK. Palaniswami’s single biggest victory was his role in getting K Annamalai, the former IPS officer-turned-BJP leader, from the post of the party’s Tamil Nadu chief and getting Nainar Nagendran appointed in place of the young Annamalai. A disgusted Annamalai had to leave the BJP and charter his own path. The squabbles in the BJP came in handy to Palaniswami because the Hindutva party has only two factions in the state. One is known as pro-AIADMK and the other as pro-DMK. Unfortunately, there is no pro-BJP faction in the Tamil Nadu BJP. Neither Nagendran nor other leaders have the charisma of Annamalai, and the BJP central leadership is likely to sweat a lot to find a leader capable of inspiring and energizing the cadre. As of date, there is nobody in the Hindutva outfit in Tamil Nadu with the capability to lead it to victory.
The leaders in DMK, AIADMK, and the BJP should understand that their time is over, and it is time for them to move out. The DMK and the AIADMK have lost their relevance in Tamil Nadu politics. Though the parties had claimed that their dream was a classless and casteless Tamil Nadu, what has happened over the last six decades was the opposite. Caste and class are the deciding factors in the state more than they were before these political parties took shape. The daughter born to a politician in his liaison with a Nadar woman is not allowed in the household where the first woman and her children (belonging to the Isai Vellalr community) stay! The Dravida Nadu has turned more communal, and caste rules the roost. If the Congress and Communists could become partners in their mission to bring down the NDA government at the Centre, what prevents the AIADMK and the DMK from coming together?
An ailing Stalin is walking towards the autumn of his life, while the entire AIADMK leadership is pulling the entity in different directions. The TVK has proved its true colors by bringing in anti-Hindutva legislation, while the BJP is left clueless in the chaos. The TVK minister CTR Nirmal Kumar declared the other day that the Joseph Vijay government would not allow the Hindus to light the Deepathoon tower at the Lord Muruga Temple at Thirupparankunram, though the highest judiciary has permitted the same. “The minorities, especially the Christians, would be safe and secure under my leadership,” Joseph Vijay had declared after he was sworn in as chief minister. Nothing surprising in reports that Trisha Krishnan had been evangelized!
The crux of the matter is that Tamil Nadu needs a progressive, forward-looking leader and a political party that is abreast with changing times. Mob-like TVK is no answer to the ancient state’s burning issues.
Vijay & co will have to change from the political slogan of protecting minorities. Once a minority leader can get the majority to elect him the minorities face no discrimination. Need no special protection. Only in a majoritarian rule minority needs special protection. https://t.co/Z0GyScqsKC
— S Gurumurthy (@sgurumurthy) May 11, 2026
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