Edappadi Palaniswami laid out the bare truth this week — if there’s a party to effectively play the role of opposition to the DMK government, it’s the AIADMK. (PTI File)
In the months to come, as more thorny issues arise for the DMK, the AIADMK will be put to test equally — on how it reacts to issues that allow it the space to play Opposition
Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK’s leader Edappadi Palaniswami laid out the bare truth this week — if there’s a party to effectively play the role of opposition to the DMK government, it’s the AIADMK.
Palaniswami could not have uttered truer words. In some way, he dished out worldly wise political wisdom that emanates from seasoned politicians like P Chidambaram, who said something similar about the Congress’s wholesome ability to check the BJP in its tracks ahead of the 2014 parliamentary polls.
A case in point was the recently concluded Erode East bypolls in Tamil Nadu. While it is true that the DMK swept handsomely (margin over 66,000 votes), it was clear from the manner of posturing in the poll run-up that the AIADMK was regarded as the principal opposition party, with the BJP seeming to be an enthusiastic irritant to the ruling DMK.
This is also plausible because the AIADMK has been the important and only contestant to the DMK’s might in Tamil Nadu for over 50 years now. The Indian National Congress holds strong organisational and infrastructural field strength but the party has not been able to leverage its strength to its fullest for years now, partly attributable to the heavy infighting.
The BJP’s growth story in Tamil Nadu is still ambivalent — strong in some regions but yet to snowball into any form of electoral force (2.62 per cent votes garnered out of the 20 seats it contested). Comparing vote percentages of AIADMK and DMK only enforces the point that the electorate did give a certain level of sanction for the AIADMK, despite 10 years in power — 33.29 per cent from 191 seats as against 37.7 per cent from DMK’s 188 seats.
And yet, all things considered, the AIADMK’s response to key issues in Tamil Nadu suggests a reluctance to play the “role of an opposition” as it should.
In recent times, the DMK government found itself firefighting – to various degrees – on two issues. One is BJP chief K Annamalai’s “expose” of corruption by the ruling family of the DMK — Chief Minister MK Stalin, minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, son in-law Sabareesan, and others. The other being the audio of a voice purportedly belonging to finance minister P Thiagarajan released by political observer and the editor of digital political views and investigative journalism outlet Savukku. The BJP took leverage from Savukku’s “expose” to strengthen its DMK Files corruption campaign.
On both issues, the AIADMK was speaking in a voice not clearly Opposition-like. While the AIADMK has not had much to say on the audio expose, its response on DMK Files underscored a reluctance to take the DMK head-on. Groaning under the weight of several corruption charges against its own ministers, the AIADMK responded sharply to just one angle of the DMK Files speech by Annamalai that he would not spare any party that has been in power. The AIADMK made the DMK Files campaign about itself, ignoring the fact that the target was the DMK, its principal opposition, and in many ways, the reason why it exists.
In the months to come, as more thorny issues arise for the DMK, the AIADMK will be put to test equally — on how it reacts to issues that allow it the space to play Opposition. What would Jayalalithaa have done?
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