Sasikala seeks ADMK unity ‘before vote’, EPS unmoved
For everyone in the AIADMK, it is clear that Palaniswami alone decides. Even Sasikala’s overtures, and the BJP’s public call for unity, did not seem to shift the balance.
Edappadi K Palaniswami; V K Sasikala 
-
Share -
-
-
V K Sasikala, the ousted former interim general secretary of the AIADMK and one-time confidante of J Jayalalithaa, made a fresh appeal for unity among the party’s warring factions on Monday, which was also former Chief Minister C N Annadurai’s birth anniversary. Her remarks, coming from her Poes Garden residence, echoed through Tamil Nadu’s opposition landscape as other voices — from BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran to sidelined AIADMK veteran K A Sengottaiyan — reiterated calls for reconciliation. Yet the man at the centre, Edappadi K Palaniswami, remains unmoved.
“Everyone in the AIADMK wants the various factions to unite before the 2026 Assembly elections. I also want it,” Sasikala said, stressing that any rapprochement must occur before the vote, not after. “Let what occurred in the past be considered as what happened. Let what unfolds from now on be on a good note,” she said, framing herself as a unifier intent on defeating the DMK. Her tone was neither demanding nor confrontational. “It is very easy to reject. But accepting one into the fold is very difficult,” she said. But her underlying point was the same as the BJP too demanded — a merger to improve the electoral prospects.
On Sunday, BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran said that “reunion of AIADMK factions would augur well for Tamil Nadu”, citing the ‘strong anti-incumbency’ against the DMK government “If all join together, it will augur well,” he said. With smaller allies slipping away, the NDA in Tamil Nadu has narrowed to just two major partners — the BJP and the AIADMK. PMK remains split between father and son. K Krishnaswamy of Puthiya Tamizhagam has drifted toward actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam. Vijayakanth’s DMDK has been openly discontented with the alliance, complaining of unkept promises. “For the BJP, projecting a fractured AIADMK is more convenient than admitting the fact that at least three major allies are not in the NDA right now,” said a senior AIADMK leader who believes in unity but disagrees with BJP’s call for unity.
Inside the AIADMK, however, reactions were cautious. Senior leader and the spokesperson D Jayakumar said that it was for the party chief, Palaniswami, to decide on Sengottaiyan’s plea for adopting a “forget and forgive” policy and re-inducting expelled leaders. Calling Sengottaiyan an “elder brother,” Jayakumar acknowledged the remark but distanced himself from endorsing it.
For everyone in the AIADMK, it is clear that Palaniswami alone decides. Even Sasikala’s overtures, and the BJP’s public call for unity, did not seem to shift the balance.
The call for unity has been growing since September 5, when Sengottaiyan, a nine-time legislator from Gobichettipalayam, set a ten-day deadline for the party to act. He argued that without bringing back former leaders such as O Panneerselvam and TTV Dhinakaran, the AIADMK could not reclaim its past glory. “Like-minded leaders will unite and do it,” he warned then.
most read
That deadline expired on September 15 without any consequence. Palaniswami responded within a day of the ultimatum by stripping Sengottaiyan of all party posts. Since then, no senior leader has backed the veteran. His influence, limited to a few pockets in Erode district, failed to create an impact that RSS ideologue S Gurumurthy and the union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman — two leaders who were in talks with Sengottaiyan — expected.
Multiple AIADMK insiders say Sengottaiyan was a “wrong pick” for Delhi’s experiment. “He thought he could become a CM candidate with BJP’s help,” a former AIADMK minister told The Indian Express on September 6. “But everyone else knows rebellion against EPS means political suicide. There is no constituency for Sengottaiyan.”
-
Share
-
-
-
Share
