On Tuesday, J Jayalalithaa was laid to rest on Marina, next to the memorial to her mentor and AIADMK founder-leader M G Ramachandran. The previous night, her party MLAs had met and elected O Panneerselvam, finance minister and the man handpicked by Jayalalithaa to hold the office of the chief minister twice when she had to step down, as the new legislature party leader.
With 133 MLAs, the AIADMK government is on firm ground. However, the big question that haunts Tamil Nadu is if the AIADMK rank and file will rally behind Panneerselvam till the 2021 elections and beyond. In the past, his choice as interim CM was unchallenged because it was made by Amma herself. In her absence, will the choice go uncontested? Can the party, the largest in the state in vote base, stay together in the absence of the glue — Amma — that held it together all these years?
Dravidian parties are no stranger to splits. In 1949, C N Annadurai broke away from Periyar E V Ramasami’s Dravida Kazhagam to float DMK. Anna and his thambis (younger brothers) made the transition from being an ethnic nationalist movement that sought an independent Dravida Nadu to a party that negotiated with the new Republic.
In 1967, the DMK won office in Madras and 50 years since, no party other than those claiming allegiance to the ideals of the Dravidian Movement has succeeded in forming a government in Tamil Nadu. When Anna died in 1969, M Karunanidhi took over, superseding V R Nedunchezhiyan, who was acting CM. The rumblings culminated in MGR, the popular screen face of the movement, splitting the DMK to form the AIADMK in 1972.