For the interim: Sasikala's nephew Dhinakaran launches political outfit

CHENNAI: VK Sasikala’s nephew and RK Nagar lawmaker TTV Dhinakaran launched a new political outfit that he qualified as an interim political arrangement to contest elections in a formal manner even as he kept his target fixed at the the AIADMK party and Two Leaves symbol, objects of a bitter and enduring wrangle between factions that formed after the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa.
At a well-attended rally in Madurai district, Dhinakaran urged followers to collectively work under and recruit cadre for the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam. It is the second outfit to be launched in Tamil Nadu within a span of a month after actor Kamal Haasan launched his own party late last month. His celluloid contemporary Rajinikanth, currently on a pilgrimage in the Himalayas is expected to strike out on his own soon.

Dhinkaran unveiled a flag too: a picture of a smiling Jayalalithaa in a backdrop of red, white, and black. Interestingly, for a party drawing heavily on the philosophies and lives of chief ministers like CN Annadurai and MG Ramachandran, the party does not have the word Dravidian in its name. Dhinakaran loyalist and disqualified lawmaker P Vetrivel said among other names Amma MGR Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was the preferred one but “several hindrances from various quarters” had emerged against the choice. “This is just for the interim; there was no conscious choice to leave out the word 'Dravida',” he said.

Having faced charges of attempting to bribe an Election Commission official to secure the Two Leaves symbol and persistent raids by Income Tax officials, Dhinakaran’s political journey had been in fits and starts since his emergence as the Deputy General Secretary of the AIADMK. Elected lawmaker from the constituency Jayalalithaa had won from – Radhakrishnan Nagar – in a large-margin victory, Dhinakaran had approached the Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Election Commission to allot the Cooker symbol to him and allow him to form his own party. The court gave a favourable verdict on March 9, paving the way for the new venture. “Be it elections for the Cooperative societies or the local body polls or even the Parlimentary elections, this will be our party name and symbol,” Dhinakaran told his partymen in Madurai, adding that member enrolments will begin soon.

For political analysts, Dhinakaran’s vow to reclaim the AIADMK and the symbol depend a lot on how he does at the hustings. N Sathiya Moorthy, Director of the Chennai chapter of the think-tank The Observer’s Foundation, said: “A lot would however depend if the AMMK could do better in future elections, starting with the local body polls. If they do, they may even forget the ‘Two Leaves’ symbol and retain what they could then claim is a symbol close to the 21st century generation – the pressure cooker.