Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S.Ramadoss in Chennai on March 27, 2023.
| Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B

The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a party that bases its support on the Vanniyar caste in north Tamil Nadu, is headed for rough times, with its founder S. Ramadoss on January 2 insisting that his choice for the post of youth wing president, Parasuraman Mukundan, who is the son of Ramadoss’ eldest daughter Gandhimathi, is “final”.

Ramadoss said: “There is no change in the appointment of Mukundan as youth wing president. I have given him the appointment order the next day itself. No one can change the decision since it was announced in the general council. Nobody in the party should get upset. Anbumani [PMK president and Ramadoss’ son] also should not get upset.”

Acknowledging that he had a difference of opinion with his son, Ramadoss insisted that it was a thing of the past. “There is no difference of opinion with Anbumani now. What Anbumani and I spoke in the general council is an internal issue within the party. We have already spoken,” he claimed in a statement.

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The announcement, first made on December 28, had split the party wide open, with Anbumani openly disagreeing with his father on the stage that day. Later, honorary party president G.K. Mani and other party seniors brokered a peace between father and son. Anbumani travelled to his father’s Thailapuram residence on December 29 and later told the press that he had no differences with his father.

“Ayya is everything to us,” he said. He explained that in a democratic party there were bound to be disagreements and that it was normal. “We discussed the party’s progress, pushing our demand of the caste census, etc… The 2026 Assembly election was also discussed,” Anbumani said after his meeting.

The previous youth wing president of the PMK was Mani’s son, G.K.M. Tamil Kumaran, a film producer. Anbumani was reportedly unhappy with this appointment too when it was made in 2022. Tamil Kumaran had contested the 2010 Pennagaram byelection on the PMK symbol but lost to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s P.N.P. Inbasekaran. Before that, it was Anbumani who was the youth wing president. It is rumoured that he is not keen to have any prominent person in the post, as he believes it might create another power centre within the party.

Since December 30, Anbumani has been meeting district secretaries of the party to shore up his support. He was also assessing his control over the party in the event of another showdown with his father. “It is open war in the family,” said a former office-bearer who left the party ahead of the 2021 election. “Anbumani wants to take the Election Commission route to take control of the party with the help of party seniors. From what I know about the party, the district secretaries will not go against Doctor Ayya [as Ramadoss is called] if he calls them and speaks to them,” he said.

The differences between the two first surfaced ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election, when Ramadoss wanted an alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) but Anbumani wanted to go with the BJP. The AIADMK had parted ways with the BJP, and it was very keen to have the PMK in its corner. The three parties fought the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly election as part of an alliance, and the PMK managed to win five seats.

Also Read | PMK’s alliance with the BJP in Tamil Nadu defies logic

The AIADMK representative deputed for the negotiations with the PMK was a former Minister, C.V. Shanmugam, who almost clinched the deal after some initial hiccups. According to one senior AIADMK member, the deal had included a Rajya Sabha seat for the PMK. Unexpectedly, however, Anbumani announced an alliance with the BJP even as the final touches were being given for the proposed tie-up with the AIADMK.

Although there is a lot of flux within the party, when asked about the possibility of the party splitting into two factions between the father and son, Pongalur Manikandan, formerly a PMK functionary and now an AIADMK sympathiser, said there was no such possibility. “There is no PMK without Doctor Ayya. Everyone knows this. Anbumani also knows this. The PMK became a broad-based party, attracting people like me, because of the approach of Doctor Ayya. That situation does not exist today, but I am unable to think of a PMK without him [Ramadoss],” he said.

Manikandan made it a point to emphasise the phrase “people like me” because he is not a Vanniyar but had joined the party because of Ramadoss’ approach to other intermediate castes. There were others, such as the former Minister, Dalit Ezhimalai, who contributed to expanding the PMK beyond its one-caste voter base.

The peak of this experiment came ahead of the 2016 Assembly election, with Anbumani batting for an inclusive PMK and projecting himself as a chief ministerial candidate. However, the party’s rout in that election made it go back to its traditional vote base. The PMK did not have a single MLA in the 2016 Assembly—a first since it became a force to contend with in 1996. The PMK managed to win five seats in the 2021 election in alliance with the AIADMK and the BJP but lost ground again in 2024 after the party chose the BJP over the AIADMK, with none of its candidates winning a seat.

The intra-family differences in the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) unfolded in a dramatic fashion at the general council meeting on December 28 after the party’s founder S. Ramadoss announced the appointment of yet another family member as the head of PMK’s youth wing.

A war of words erupted at the meeting in Puducherry between the party patriarch and his son Anbumani soon after Ramadoss announced the decision to appoint Parasuraman Mukundan, the son of his eldest daughter Gandhimathi, as the president of the youth wing. Mukundan joined the party four months ago.

Soon after the announcement, Anbumani—a Rajya Sabha MP who led the party in the recent parliamentary election and who shared the stage—retorted: “He has just joined. What experience does he have?” The crowd agreed with him, jeering at the selection loudly.

A visibly agitated Ramadoss shot back: “I created this party. I will make the decisions here. If anyone does not want to obey my decision, he can leave the party.”

Anbumani persisted. “You can appoint anyone…[but] appoint someone with experience. We need good workers in the field. We need those with good qualities.” He also wondered: “How can someone who is just coming in be appointed as the youth wing in-charge?”

Irked over the dissent, Ramadoss shouted back: “You all must listen to me.” “You do what you want,” responded Anbumani.

Not willing to let go, Ramdoss continued: “The one who doesn’t listen to me does not have a place in this party.”

“Adhu seri [That’s right.],” said Anbumani, who at this point seem to be going through an emotional roller-coaster. Ramadoss, who was clearly in a combative mood, twisted the knife. “Seri na seri. Po appo [Then, you can leave],” he said.

Also Read | PMK’s alliance with the BJP in Tamil Nadu defies logic

Anbumani stopped responding at this point but Ramadoss continued. “I am telling you again. Mukundan is being appointed as the youth wing president,” he declared to a stunned audience. “Clap your hands now,” he ordered, and the crowd obliged.

It appeared that Anbumani did not expect the cadre to clap when Ramadoss ordered them to. He was heard over the din: “Give more [positions] to the family.”

Anbumani’s stance might have appeared principled if not for the fact his wife Sowmiya was PMK’s Dharmapuri candidate in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Sowmiya was not known to be an active PMK officer-bearer though she ran a non-governmental organisation. A PhD in sociology and biodiversity, Sowmiya has yet to comment on the spat between her husband and father-in-law.

After the meeting was over, supporters of Anbumani blocked Ramadoss’ car as he was leaving the venue and raised slogans hailing Anbumani. Ramdoss smiled at the cadre with folded hands. Having made their displeasure clear, the crowd made way for the car.

A new base

Anbumani used the stage to tell the cadre that he had opened a new office for himself at Panayur, just outside Chennai, and that they could come there to meet him. Ramadoss operates out of Thailapuram, about 150 km south west of Chennai. Several national and State political leaders have travelled to this nondescript town in Viluppuram district to cut deals with the PMK ahead of elections.

Though Ramadoss appeared to have won the battle of the day, judging by the cadres’ overall reaction, Anbumani seems to have the upper hand within the party. But some of the old school office-bearers, including the 72-year-old G.K. Mani, who has been the party president for over a quarter of a century (and now honorary president), is unlikely to act against Ramadoss.

The father-son tussle stems from the fact that the PMK has not been anywhere close to the corridors of power since 2014. In 2016, it went alone in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election, with the theme “Change, Progress, Anbumani” [”Maatram, Munnetram, Anbumani”] which was a rip-off from the former US President Barack Obama’s election campaign in the 2008 presidential election. The PMK lost all the seats it had contested.

In the 2019 parliamentary election, the PMK contested seven seats in the AIADMK-BJP alliance and lost all. The party was again in the wrong camp in the 2021 Assembly election, as it contested 23 seats as part of the AIADMK alliance and won a mere five. It remained with the BJP and contested the 2024 parliamentary election and lost all seats.

At the meeting, Anbumani, under whose leadership the party suffered several reverses in these elections, contended that all losses were a lesson. He asserted that in 2026, the PMK will be a part of the coalition that forms the government in Tamil Nadu.

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But that is a tall claim and Ramadoss is seeking to chart a new path for the party he founded with the help of some seniors who desire to see a change in direction. A few party seniors believe that the 2026 State Assembly election will be “a make-or-break event” for the PMK. Some do not want to be seen courting the BJP, which is seen as a baggage in the State Assembly election.

However, Anbumani is said to be opposed to ditching the BJP. This could probably be due to the potential for a backlash in the form of new trouble over old cases stirred up by Central investigative agencies.

With a few senior party members already trying to douse the fire, the latest spat between the father and the son may soon fizzle out. However, unless the equations within the PMK’s first family are set right, the party could face rough times, especially with actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam already making inroads into the PMK’s stronghold in north and north-western Tamil Nadu.