After nearly three decades, the AIADMK is facing its biggest challenge. The party had once plunged into turmoil following the death of its founder, M G Ramachandran (MGR). Now, it faces another crisis. J Jayalalithaa, 68, who died on Monday, ran the party single-handedly. She left virtually no successor who can match her calibre.
The party faces the gigantic task of finding a widely accepted interim leader, who will hold it together.?
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The seven-time general secretary, popular as 'Puratchi Thalaivi' (revolutionary leader) among her people, took the party to new heights. Last May, the party registered a historic consecutive win, a feat her?mentor achieved in 1984. And the winning streak may have continued in the upcoming local body polls.
With the party supremo dead, AIADMK workers are rudderless.?
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The disappointment was writ large on the faces of cadres, even as ministers and elected representatives zipped past the bylanes of Greams Road where Apollo Hospitals is located, and the party headquarters on Lloyds Road.
"We saw our Puratchi Thalaivar in her. She was our Amma and there was none parallel to her," said R Valli Raju, a party functionary from Alandur, who's been camping near Apollo Hospitals since Sunday night.?
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O Panneerselvam, who was accepted as stand-in CM on two previous occasions, hardly matches his leader's stature. But a likely transition, probably under OPS, may bring to the fore the capabilities of the party?members, who were deprived of a definite role in the past. The immediate test for the ruling party is the upcoming local body polls.
Political analyst N Sathyamoorthy said that for the party to stay united and strengthen itself, it has to be through a praesidium of sub-regional leaders. "If anyone tries to outsmart the other, it would only lead to disintegration, as happened immediately after MGR," he said.?
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Prof Ramu Manivannan, head, department of politics and public administration, University of Madras, said that any jockeying for power by "newcomers" will give DMK strength and, in the long-run, could splinter the party.