Chennai: Sidelined AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dinakaran launched a new party on Thursday, calling it the Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam, but making it clear that the outfit was an interim arrangement till he retrieved the original from "betrayers".
The RK Nagar MLA, nephew of jailed AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala Natarajan, had already got Delhi High Court's permission for having "pressure cooker" as the party's symbol and a name of his choice for the faction he leads.
Sasikala, a long-time aide of the late Jayalalithaa, and Dinakaran had been evicted from the AIADMK by chief minister E.K. Palaniswami.
Dinakaran had been locked in a court battle with the AIADMK after the Election Commission turned down his plea for the party's two-leaves symbol. The court asked the poll panel to assign a new name and symbol to the leader, who then decided to launch his own outfit after months of bitter feud with Tamil Nadu's ruling party.
Dinakaran had been contemplating a new party since his election as an Independent MLA from RK Nagar, a seat that had fallen vacant after then chief minister Jayalalithaa's death in December 2016.
On Thursday, he launched the party and its flag at Madurai, the political capital of southern Tamil Nadu, but announced that the new outfit was an interim arrangement "till I retrieve the AIADMK from betrayers like Edappadi Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam".
"Similarly," he added, "I will not rest till I retrieve the iconic symbol of Two Leaves from them."
Thousands of supporters turned up for the launch and crammed into roads leading to Melur (Madurai), the venue for the announcement, with life-size cutouts of Jayalalithaa, her mentor M.G. Ramachandran and Sasikala on display.
It was hardly a month ago that actor Kamal Haasan had launched his party, the Makkal Neethi Maiyam (Centre for People's Justice).
One more party is in the offing: superstar Rajinikanth had on December 31 announced that he would also enter the fray and his party would contest all the 234 constituencies in Tamil Nadu. But he is yet to name his new party.
The developments should worry the dispensation headed by Palaniswami and Panneerselvam, as Dinakaran's move could lead to a vertical split in the ruling AIADMK, which boasts 1.5 crore members and has a 32 per cent vote share in the state.
Despite their outward indifference to Dinakaran's outfit - fisheries minister D. Jayakumar dubbed the new party a "mosquito" - AIADMK leaders are aware of the phenomenal political and economic clout Dinakaran has.
Both Palaniswami and Panneerselvam are aware that there are disgruntled elements in the AIADMK and that many of their current supporters are with them only because the party is in power till 2021.
Of course, a lot would depend on Madras High Court's pending decision on the disqualification of 18 MLAs who have been supporting Dinakaran.
Dinakaran's strategy is clear. He has been building his base brick by brick, chipping away at the AIADMK - aware that he could emerge as the number one within a year or two - but is in no hurry because he knows that whatever he does might indirectly help his political rival and DMK heir apparent M.K. Stalin.
But his real worry would be the actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan who have thrown their hats into the ring for the 2021 Assembly elections.
Surveys have predicted that the AIADMK would be far more vulnerable than the DMK if the two stars were to start poaching.
More than 95 per cent of cadres of both the parties, who have been sweating it out for years, have not benefited in any way although power has alternated between the two parties for more than half a century. They have largely remained bystanders.
