Opinion Supremo’s choice
AIADMK’s move to drop 100 of its sitting MLAs reflects a political tendency rife in a leader-centric party politics.
A hundred of the AIADMK’s 150 MLAs are missing from the party’s list of candidates for the upcoming Tamil Nadu assembly election that was released earlier this week. Political parties do replace sitting MLAs, but rarely do they go for an overhaul on this scale, wherein two-thirds of the legislature party is denied renomination. A plausible explanation is that new faces can help a party beat the anti-incumbency sentiment. This strategy has been tried in other states, where incumbents have sought to retain office by replacing old MLA candidates with new.
In the case of the AIADMK, there could be another reason: Its organisational structure, where all the power is centralised and concentrated at the top with the party chief. In such a party, it is in the interest of the party supremo that the second-rung leadership remain faceless even after they become elected representatives or hold public office. In recent years, legislators have acquired increasing access to substantial funds to develop their constituencies and build popular support. The funds could also come in handy to develop patronage networks independent of the party and the party chief. Leader-centric parties like the AIADMK are wary of the localisation of political power and leadership since the process could throw up potential challengers to the party supremo. The AIADMK, for instance, seeks votes only in the name of its leader, J. Jayalalithaa, and the state government has branded its welfare schemes after “Amma”, not the ruling party. Loyalty to the leader is the primary consideration for the party, therefore, when it picks candidates for elections. The faceless nominee is dependent on the charismatic leader to win the election and is never allowed the time or space to develop into a leader in his or her own right. The elected representative is beholden only to his leader — a distortion of the democratic principle where a legislator is accountable, primarily, to the voter.
Shades of the AIADMK model can be seen in several regional parties, including those that once were cadre-centric and ideology-driven. Politics as a project built upwards from the grassroots is being replaced by a patronage system of nominations from a centralised high command. The AIADMK, which emerged from the Dravidian movement and transmuted into a leadership cult over the years, is a full-blown example of a spreading phenomenon.
Share
