As he addressed his first press conference on Wednesday after being nominated as the PMK’s chief ministerial candidate in the next Assembly elections, it was crystal clear that the former Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, is looking to break away from the party’s past.
The party’s mainly rural base in a highly urbanised State, the dichotomy between its pronounced distaste for alliances with the two Dravidian majors and its tendency to align with one of them in most elections, its social objection to ‘staged love marriages’ are all aspects of its history that it has to break free from to project itself as a credible alternative.
Mr. Anbumani peppered his address with mention of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its rousing victory in the Delhi elections. He urged the people of Tamil Nadu to put an end to the “corrupt” rule of the two Dravidian parties and usher in change through the PMK. As he nurses ambitions of being a chief minister and doing an Arvind Kejriwal in Tamil Nadu, it is obvious that Mr. Anbumani’s immediate challenge is within the party and not outside.
Much of the post-poll analysis on Delhi centred on how the AAP, a relatively recent phenomenon, managed to gain support from across society, transcending caste and class. The PMK, founded by S. Ramadoss in 1989, on the other hand, is rigidly identified with the Vanniyar community and has been pitted against the Dalit-dominated Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi in the northern districts.
In 2012, the party’s stand on the Ilavarasan-Divya love affair and subsequent attempts to cobble together a “social front” to take on “staged love marriages” earned it the ire of progressive organisations. The party needs to spread its wings from its rural base to urban centres. The immediate task before it would be to move away from caste rhetoric and provide a development narrative.
Probably having this in mind, Mr. Anbumani spent much time on Wednesday articulating the PMK’s position on a variety of issues, with focus on corruption. One remedy he proposed was ‘Right to Service’ legislation if voted to power, an idea which could find resonance with the urban middle class. He also invoked his performance as Union Minister to drive home his administrative capabilities.
Politically, Mr. Anbumani will face the same questions that have been haunting the PMK for a while now. While the party had time and again vowed to distance itself from the two Dravidian parties, it had invariably joined hands with them for electoral success. He would have to hope that his nomination as CM candidate would put to rest this controversy.
But this raises another significant question. In the party’s formative years, the senior Ramadoss famously stated that he would not let anyone from his family enter politics. Decades later, the word has not been kept and the PMK might find itself accused of practising the same dynastic politics that the DMK does, though Mr. Anbumani defended the move, stating his father had never held any official position to benefit his family.
Also, with smaller political outfits like the TMC, the DMDK and the MDMK being personality-centric, there is already no dearth of chief ministerial candidates in Tamil Nadu. Only time would tell if his candidature would be accepted beyond the PMK’s organisation.
