'Dictatorial' EPS, dissent in DMK and a dummy horse: Why Tamil Nadu's two Dravidian giants are cracking from within

CHENNAI: Signs of unrest within Dravidian majors after the poll debacle intensified on Monday, even as DMK president M K Stalin and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami assured their cadres that the two parties would bounce back.While AIADMK veteran S Semmalai quit after serving the party for 45 years, former minister P T R Palanivel Thiagarajan of DMK said he was taking a short break from politics. PTR said he would be travelling abroad to deliver lectures and attend events which he was unable to do during his stint as minister. He would utilise the time to write a book as well.Semmalai, who had held multiple posts in AIADMK under M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, said he was leaving the party because of the ‘dictatorial approach’ of EPS which was shrinking the party’s strength. The EPS camp dismissed his resignation as insignificant.Parallelly, EPS mounted a fresh attack on TVK, accusing the Vijay-led party of resorting to horse trading. “TVK was luring AIADMK MLAs promising cabinet berths,’’ he said. Calling it a ‘poi kaal kuthirai’ (dummy horse with false legs), EPS said the TVK govt would not last long. On the other hand AIADMK would bounce back, he said. “Our differences would be sorted out through internal discussions,’’ he said. He has invited districts secretaries for a meeting on Tuesday.Even before the government was formed in the state, the AIADMK, once the unquestioned pole of Dravidian politics in Tamil Nadu, began showing visible signs of strain after its disappointing performance in the 2026 assembly elections. Just days after the party was reduced to 47 seats in the 234-member assembly, internal divisions burst into the open, exposing disagreements over leadership, strategy, and even whether the party should support the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) led by chief minister C Joseph Vijay.The first day of the new assembly reflected these emerging cracks. In a striking departure from long-established AIADMK convention, the party's newly elected MLAs arrived at the assembly in two separate groups for the oath-taking ceremony on Monday.One faction, comprising former ministers KP Munusamy and Thalavai N Sundaram among others, accompanied AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS). Another camp, led by former minister SP Velumani, arrived separately along with former minister Dr C Vijayabaskar, news agency PTI reported.Senior leader C Ve Shanmugam, who has increasingly emerged as a focal point of dissent within the party, did not arrive with the EPS camp either.Ordinarily, AIADMK legislators enter the assembly together as a show of unity and organisational discipline, a tradition cultivated during the eras of MG Ramachandran and later J Jayalalithaa. The recent scenes were therefore interpreted by many in Tamil Nadu’s political circles as more than symbolic, indicating that the AIADMK was struggling to maintain internal cohesion after a bruising electoral setback.The AIADMK contested 167 seats in the April 23 election but managed to win only 47, slipping further from the dominant position it once occupied in state politics. The party's vote share also fell from 33.5% in 2021 to 21.21% in the 2026 elections.The rival faction, meanwhile, intensified pressure on the leadership. Viralimalai MLA C Vijayabaskar claimed the rebels had secured support from two-fifths of AIADMK’s general council members to convene a special general council meeting to discuss the reasons behind the party’s defeat and the need to bring younger leaders into the organisation. The rebel MLAs held a meeting on Monday too.DMK too is witnessing voices of dissent against senior ministers as well as strategy firm PEN, run by Stalin’s son-in-law Sabarisan. Former MLAs also publicly criticised senior ministers such as K N Nehru and P K Sekar Babu.Stalin, however, said the TVK victory was driven by TVK’s strategy of using Instagram and getting children to convince their parents to support Vijay. He urged DMK men to thwart such strategies. “DMK would rise again like the Phoenix,” he said.