Like Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, Edappadi K Palanisamy, who has been elected as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s legislative party leader by the VK Sasikala faction on Tuesday, has a reputation of being a “soft, smiling man”. And like Panneerselvam, Palanisamy’s loyalty to Jayalalithaa, the party head who died in December, was unflinching.
Hardly anyone outside Tamil Nadu is likely to know of Palanisamy, who is currently the public works minister. On Tuesday, just two hours after the Supreme Court convicted Sasikala in an illegal wealth case, which debars her from contesting elections for 10 years, Palanisamy finally emerged from behind the scenes.
Born in 1957 in Edappadi in Salem district in western Tamil Nadu, Palanisamy belonged to a farming family of landlords. Like many of his generation, he was attracted by the charisma of AIADMK founder MG Ramachandran and joined the party in 1982.
When MGR died in 1987, Palanisamy hit the jackpot by backing Jayalalithaa and opposing MGR’s wife VN Janaki, when she became chief minister for a brief period in 1988 and tried to capture the AIADMK.
This loyalty during difficult times was rewarded by Jayalalithaa, who made him successfully contest the 1989 elections.
Jayalalithaa reposed complete faith in Palanisamy, who was part of the “famous five” in the AIADMK along with Panneerselvam, Natham R Viswanathan, V Vaithilingam and P Palaniappan. This group managed all the political operations of the party and were entrusted with the duty of implementing their leader’s orders. They were the emissaries who negotiated alliances on behalf of their leader.
Jayalalithaa had a penchant for frequently shuffling her cabinet. But between 2011 and 2016, Palanisamy was one of the very few who was never dropped from the ministry.
His caste background had a lot to do with his success in the AIADMK. As a Kongu Vellala Gounder, he was instrumental in planning for elections in the western region of Tamil Nadu.
Tilting the scales
In 2016, western Tamil Nadu was the most important factor that shifted the scales in favour of the AIADMK. The party won 45 of the 55 assembly seats in the region, magnifying Palanisamy’s importance in the organisation. In his own backyard of Salem, the party won 10 of the 11 seats.
When Jayalalithaa died on December 5, there were reports that Palanisamy opposed Panneerselvam’s nomination as chief minister.
His choice as leader of the legislative party looks natural since the idea now was to pit one Jayalalithaa loyalist with another. While Panneerselvam has said that Jayalalithaa never wanted Sasiakala to be her political heir, it would be difficult to question Palanisamy’s locus standi as he is as experienced as Panneerselvam in the AIADMK.
In fact, during alliance negotiations for Assembly elections in 2016, Jayalalithaa had sidelined Panneerselvam but had retained Palanisamy in the core group.
Palanisamy will meet Governor Vidyasagar Rao on Tuesday evening and stake claim to form the government.
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