Edappadi K. Palanisamy
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YEAR-WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2017
Amarnath K. Menon , The Loyalist’s Turn “ India Today “ 27/2/2017
His years as a stalwart of Jayalalithaa's naalvar ani (four-man army) have paid Edappadi K. Palaniswami, 62, rich dividends. He was also second in command and PWD minister in the Pannerselvam cabinet. Palanisamy is with Sasikala now and is her man for the chief minister's post. No one from his Gounder community, also referred to as the Kongu Vellalar Gounders, traditional landowners and farmers from the western districts, has ever held the top post since P. Subbarayan who was chief minister of the erstwhile Madras Presidency (1926-1936).
Palaniswami's electoral debut came in somewhat similar circumstances to what the AIADMK is facing now, split into two factions, one headed by party founder M.G. Ramachandran's widow Janaki and the other by rebel J. Jayalalithaa. He joined the Jayalalithaa group and won the Edappadi assembly seat in the 1989 polls. He has won three of the five assembly polls he contested and was also Lok Sabha MP from Tiruchengode in 1998. He's also said to have vast financial resources with MLA K.A. Sengottaiyan, a strongman from the western districts, serving as a mentor. Which maybe why he was chosen, as someone who can stand up to the Thevars and even take on Panneerselvam if it comes to the crunch.
The soft-spoken Palaniswami's sway in the Gounder-dominated western districts was the most important factor that tilted the scales in favour of the AIADMK in the 2016 polls. The party won 45 of the 57 seats from here. In his home district, Salem, the party won 10 of the 11 seats.
While rallying the MLAs from western Tamil Nadu may be his primary task, Palaniswami will have many other challenges: to ensure there is no infighting in the Gounder group and also deal with the extended Sasikala family. Like most other AIADMK leader ministers, he too comes with baggage. Corruption charges, publicised or not, could prove to be a burden.
2020
Just days after taking over as chief minister in February 2017, Edappadi K Palaniswami wondered why so many police personnel were deployed along the routes he took and brought it to the notice of top police officials.
A few months later, when he realized there were only a few policemen posted on his regular routes, he once again brought it to the notice of top officials. A senior officer told TOI that they now post a larger contingent of police personnel. That in a nutshell describes the growth in the stature of EPS in the last couple of years.
Ever since he became the chief minister, EPS has proved himself to be a shrewd survivor. By placating people when required and putting them in their place when the situation demands, he has sent out a message that he is in control of both the government and the party.
“EPS got O Panneerselvam to merge his faction without much of a trade-off,” said a senior AIADMK leader. “While we all believed it was OPS, who was very close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EPS managed to overcome that shortcoming too. He is like the famed Thanjavur doll – whichever way one pushes it down, it will bounce back to stand erect,” he said.
“When MGR died, AIADMK was in power. But, after his death the government could not survive. AIADMK was in power, when Amma (J Jayalalithaa) passed away. Not only has the government survived, but EPS is now entering the fourth year in office,” former AIADMK Rajya Sabha MP, V Maitreyan told TOI.
Even officials vouch for him. “He is very accessible, decisive and genuinely interested in getting new investments into Tamil Nadu and promoting ease of doing business,” said a senior government official, who did not want to be named.
But, bigger challenges await him as he steps into his fourth year in office, a year when he and his party would have to gear up to face assembly polls, slated next summer, and take on new political rivals, who could emerge on the scene. The coming year will not only be a big test for EPS as well as OPS, but for AIADMK itself.
His detractors are not much enthused. “EPS has survived solely because of a weak Stalin (DMK president). Otherwise, things would have been different,” said expelled AIADMK leader K C Palanisamy, who also questioned the CM for boasting about the number of files he had cleared during his three years in office. “It is like a 60-year-old claiming the number of meals he had in his lifetime. What improvement has EPS brought to Tamil Nadu and its people as CM?” he asked.
2021 Jan
Jaya Menon, January 22 2021: The Times of India
Getting the unanimous approval of the AIADMK, including party coordinator and deputy CM O Panneerselvam, for his CM candidature for the assembly election had been Palaniswami’s biggest victory yet. Wearing down BJP’s Hindutva campaign, the Vetrivel yatra; taking the sting out of PMK’s reservation protest; getting Ramadoss to come down from his stand of 20% quota for vanniyars and agree to the constitution of a commission to collate caste-wise data have all fallen in place in the run up to a crucial election battle.
Friendly fire from the BJP and the leaders like Anbumani Ramadoss (in pic) from PMK poses biggest challenge to the AIADMK But the battles are not done yet. The AIADMK has conceptualised a deliberate strategy in the dynamics of alliance formation and management to add heft to his image as a leader redefined. The party’s strategists have meticulously prepared for election day — from tackling provocations from within to parrying challenges while firming up alliances. But the focus clearly has been on rebuilding Palaniswami’s leadership image that the party hopes would have a bearing on the outcome of the election.
After M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa, the politics of personalities is a bygone. But AIADMK strategists believe that EPS has a better mass appeal as a leader than his rival DMK president M K Stalin. How his strategies work and whether he would come out the victor in the most crucial battle yet in TN politics could determine the new-age leader and his politics.
How CM Edappadi K Palaniswami stood up to adversaries
- Allies got the first taste of EPS’s toughness ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when he restricted main partner BJP to five seats, the PMK to seven, the DMDK to four and kept 20 for itself
- The first key strategic move to quell dissidence within the AIADMK and gain unanimous acceptance as CM candidate last October gained him respect within and outside the party
- When the BJP refused to acknowledge him as CM candidate for the NDA, EPS remained unprovoked. Finally on December 31, he announced the AIADMK would lead the alliance and he would be the CM candidate
- The momentum of BJP’s Vetrivel yatra petered out largely due to the EPS government putting its foot down against it, using the high court order that cited Covid-19 protocol and law and order issue
- When the PMK’s protests demanding 20% vanniyar sub-quota threatened to go out of hand, EPS invited Anbumani Ramadoss for discussions and promised a commission to collate caste-wise data
