An Election That Has Opened Up Severe Fault Lines Of Tamil Nadu Parties

A breaking news on SUN TV flashed the unfolding development — AIADMK ‘s C V Shanmugam is alleged to have convinced 15 of his party colleagues to follow him to a resort in Puducherry for some R& R (Rest and Recreation). They say trouble seldom comes by itself. Is Shanmugam pressurising the party chief Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) that AIADMK must “support” Vijay, the newly elected wonder for the 11 seats he is falling short in getting a majority to claim governance in TN?  The quickly called AIADMK meet at the Lloyd’s Road HQ brought together strongmen K P Munusamy, S P Velumani , C Vijaya Bhaskar and the voluble Shanmugam in confrontation mood with EPS. A media meet soon after raised the question is the party ready to give support to Vijay? Munusamy quickly denied such speculations, singing praises of the party’s illustrious leaders MGR and J Jayalalithaa, now standing tall under Edappadi.  But the talk about the ginger group only got louder. So this allegation of resorting to keep away from the leadership and raise the flag of dissent appears to be true …after all every party, including the chameleon Congress is in the throes of manoeuvre and machinations to get into the TVK bandwagon at any cost. Old loyalties, party principles and public disdain are not about to stop these aspirers from throwing their hats into that magic ring of 118 MLA s of TVK, needed to claim majority in the Assembly. So much for “serving the people of TN”…principles of loyalty and party discipline rarely stop self-serving politicians.