AIADMK internal review focuses on erosion of party’s vote base among the Scheduled Castes
The erosion of the AIADMK’s vote base among the Scheduled Castes, considered the traditional supporters of the party, came up for discussion in the first round of consultations conducted by general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on the party’s poor performance in 23 Lok Sabha constituencies. The initial round, which began on July 10, came to an end on Friday. The next round, covering the remaining 17 Lok Sabha seats including Puducherry, will be held from July 24 to August 5.
The deliberations also focussed on rebuilding the party’s base among women, another key vote bank of the party. There is a perception that the ruling DMK has largely cut into its principal adversary’s support base through policy interventions, including Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai.
The AIADMK leaders and functionaries also discussed how to recapture the base among the fishing folk, in addition to making their organisation more appealing to the youth.
While the decline in the AIADMK’s base among the Scheduled Castes was noticed even during the 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections, the party hoped to retrieve the support this time. Except in the Villupuram and Chidambaram Lok Sabha constituencies where the party’s vote share was around 35%, the figure in the remaining four constituencies reserved for the Scheduled Castes (Kancheepuram, the Nilgiris, Nagapattinam, and Tenkasi) was in the range of 21% to 28%. Tiruvallur was given to the DMDK.
Deeper scrutiny
A deeper scrutiny of the party’s performance (in Assembly segments reserved for the Scheduled Castes) reveals that even where the party is holding the seats (11 out of a total of 24 seats under review), its showing should be considered unsatisfactory in seven places where the vote share did not exceed 30%. In two of them, the party’s votes did not exceed one-sixth of the total, the limit for retaining security deposits.
A section of the participants feels that the consultations have been held only to demonstrate that Mr. Palaniswami is in control of the party, at a time when he is increasingly coming under pressure from different quarters to capture the AIADMK’s vote base. Apart from AMMK general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran and former coordinator of the AIADMK O. Panneerselvam, he is facing a challenge from former interim general secretary V.K. Sasikala who is now on a State-wide tour.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s review of the working of Amma Unavagams, the low-cost eateries launched by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, is also being seen in certain quarters as an attempt by the ruling party to poach the AIADMK supporters.
These participants feel that contrarian views should have been conveyed to the general secretary. They hope it will happen at least at the next and final round.
Another group of the party functionaries feels that the general secretary did a “critical review” of the party’s performance. The factor of money power and the importance of a strong alliance were highlighted.
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