AIADMK undergoes metamorphosis

By Suresh Nambath

CHENNAI, MAY. 2. At the end of the series of meetings involving functionaries from all the Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, the AIADMK is a changed organisation. In just over a hundred days, the party hierarchy underwent a top-to- bottom metamorphosis unparalleled in its history.

Lower-level partymen, enjoying the ``freedom of expression'' granted during these meetings by the party supremo, Ms. Jayalalitha, hit out at the top and middle-level leaders. And the ``cultural revolution'' that spread from one meeting to another culminated in the entire second line of the AIADMK being publicly discredited.

The net result: a clean-up operation by Ms. Jayalalitha replacing party strongmen and factional leaders. And the organisational polls, conducted towards the end of 1998, were declared as invalid on the ground that they were manipulated by senior leaders.

For Ms. Jayalalitha, the exercise served two purposes. One, to do away with factional leaders who were wielding considerable clout among partymen. Two, to enthuse lower-level partymen who were feeling alienated from the party leadership.

During a closed door discussion immediately after the defeat in the 1999 Lok Sabha election, the AIADMK attempted to identify the reasons for the fall in votes. The party deputy general secretary, Mr. K. Kalimuthu, who is one of the few to survive the purge, at that time attributed the electoral defeat to the lack of commitment shown by the cadres in manning polling booths and counting centres.

In a speech that was heard uninterrupted by Ms. Jayalalitha, he claimed that lower level partymen could be bought for liquor or money. In the understanding of Ms. Jayalalitha, ``motivating'' the lower level functionaries soon became the key to winning an election.

Besides, similar meetings with district functionaries prior to the 1998 Lok Sabha polls were effective. Through the meetings of functionaries, Ms. Jayalalitha used her undisputed popularity among partymen to get rid of the second line leaders. Those whose loyalty was suspect, and those who were heading their own factions, were the first victims.

Once the functionaries got the idea that all the senior leaders, barring of course Ms. Jayalalitha, were safe targets, they levelled allegation after allegation against the men on top. All the functionaries were encouraged to question the authority of the party strongmen.

During the initial meetings, the targets were the middle-level leaders. But, soon enough, there was the green signal to proceed against one and all. Indeed, Ms. Jayalalitha herself began to provide ``damning evidence'' against the senior leaders in her concluding addresses at these meetings.

Ms. Jayalalitha wanted to correct the impression that she was ``inaccessible'' to partymen. In her attempt to rebuild the links between the cadre and the leadership, Ms. Jayalalitha blamed ``intermediaries'' for the ``inaccessibility.'' Partymen were told that their letters to her did not reach her. Complaints against senior leaders were held back from her by the party office staff.

The signals that Ms. Jayalalitha was hoping to send to the ordinary worker and party sympathiser were: they were the backbone of the party; the leadership is responsive to them; the senior leaders, since removed or sidelined, were to blame for any wrongdoing. However, the expelled and sidelined leaders see the hand of the Sasikala family in all these happenings. After all, the functionaries were only given a chance to badmouth the senior leaders; they were not allowed to choose the new leaders.

But the changes that Ms. Jayalalitha has brought about go far beyond the interests of the Sasikala family. What she loses in terms of the mobilisation abilities of the displaced seniors, Ms. Jayalalitha hopes to gain from the enthusiasm that was freshly- injected into the cadres.

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