Anbumani calls on Ramadoss, attempts to break the ice in vain

VILLUPURAM: PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss called on his father and party founder S Ramadoss at the Thailapuram farmhouse on Thursday in an apparent effort to end the cold war between the two and resolve the ongoing issues between them. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes.

However, political observers believed that the meeting did not resolve the issues between the father and son, as neither met the press, hinting that they had not reached an amicable solution for reconciliation.

“The much-awaited meeting has not yielded any fruitful results so far. We have to wait for a couple of days to learn what transpired between the two. Chinna Ayya (Anbumani) and his daughter visited Ayya (Ramadoss). They were closeted for about 45 minutes. Chinna Ayya’s elder sister (Gandhimathi) also reached the farmhouse and joined the meeting just five minutes before they concluded the discussions. We have no clue what they discussed, but as usual, the media started speculating,” said a party source.

Gandhimathi is the mother of Mukundan, who was appointed as the party’s youth wing president despite stiff opposition from Anbumani in December last year. Mikundan has denounced his position a few days ago following the spat between Ramadoss and Anbumani.

In a surprise development, Thuglak magazine editor and auditor S Gurumurthy, a pro-BJP political commentator, called on Ramadoss at his farmhouse on Thursday ahead of Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit. Gurumurthy’s visit was regarded as an attempt to insist that Ramadoss continue in the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and face the assembly polls next year in the state.

The visit comes after Ramadoss, while lashing out at his son a few days ago, had openly said he was not in favour of joining NDA for the 2024 parliamentary polls but was forced to do so following pressure from Anbumani and Sowmiya Anbumani. Ramadoss had earlier demoted his son from the post of president to working president, sparking a war between them.

The father and son rift widened further after they held separate meetings with the party's top functionaries over the past few days to gain control over the party.

Anbumani, while speaking to the party functionaries in Chennai on Wednesday night, termed party secretary Anbalagan a traitor for attempting to destroy the party.