AIADMK splits: Rebel faction set to join Vijay’s Tamil Nadu government today, party falls apart on EPS’s birthday

He said the dissident MLAs rejected the proposal and decided instead to extend support to Vijay’s TVK government “in the larger interest of saving the AIADMK and Amma’s movement”.

Shanmugham said the rebel camp had elected former minister S P Velumani as its legislature party leader and submitted letters to the Assembly Secretary informing him of the decision. “We faced defeat collectively and we take collective responsibility for it. We are not blaming any individual. But the party founded by MGR and strengthened by Amma must now be protected,” he said.

“It is probably the most vulnerable day in EPS’s political life,” said a senior leader still with the EPS camp. “The unfortunate thing is that the official split of AIADMK is happening on his birthday itself.”

“Slowly, even MLAs still with EPS will move. EPS may become the new OPS,” he added, referring to O Panneerselvam, another former CM and ex-AIADMK leader, now in the DMK, whom he had sidelined.

What actually transpired

While Shanmugham publicly framed the split as a revolt against EPS’s alleged willingness to form a government with DMK support, The Indian Express had earlier reported a far more layered sequence of events. Sources familiar with the negotiations said EPS had initially reacted negatively to the proposal to make VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan the CM and delayed his response for crucial hours. By the time EPS appeared willing to reconsider the arrangement on Saturday afternoon, TVK leader and state minister Aadhav Arjuna had already met Thirumavalavan and secured his letter of support for Vijay.

The collapse of that formula intensified frustration within the Velumani-Shanmugham camp that itself had been pushing for some form of power-sharing arrangement to keep the AIADMK politically relevant after the defeat.

Simultaneously, party insiders said a powerful corporate-political lobby, allegedly operating with encouragement from sections close to Delhi, worked aggressively behind the scenes to accelerate the split and move legislators toward the TVK camp.

Sources said the rebels were expected to meet TVK leaders by evening, while CM Vijay was also expected to formally accept AIADMK support in the interest of “government stability”. The party won 47 seats in the recent elections.

If Velumani is widely seen as the organisational and financial centre of the rebellion, and C Ve Shanmugham its political face, party insiders repeatedly pointed to another figure who quietly accelerated the collapse from behind the scenes: Leema Rose Martin, the wife of lottery baron Santiago Martin and a recent entrant into the AIADMK before the elections.

Reliable sources in the rebel camp said Leema played a central role in building communication channels between the factions and the TVK. “Without Leema, this would not have happened this fast,” one insider said. Arjuna, her son-in-law, is among Vijay’s closest political associates, a minister, and one of the key strategists in the TVK.

It was also Leema who first publicly revealed that talks were underway between the AIADMK and the TVK. On the night of May 5, then still considered a junior-most MLA in the party, she stunned political circles by declaring that negotiations were ongoing and carefully placing it before the public — “I hope EPS will lead the government” — a statement that appeared bizarre then, but now reads like the first public sign of a vertical rupture underway inside the party.

Growing corporate role

Insiders said the crisis also shows the growing role of corporate influence in Tamil Nadu politics, with a powerful business network emerging as a key force behind the realignment.

Multiple insiders in the EPS camp alleged that legislators crossing over were being financially backed for the political risk they were taking. Multiple sources in the rebel faction also said an initial tranche had been delivered and the rest would be paid by the weekend. “Half of the amount has already been paid to everyone. The remaining amount is expected by this weekend,” said a top source.

Unlike earlier, when AIADMK crises were shaped heavily by caste blocs — Thevar, Gounder, or Vanniyar power struggles — senior leaders said this rupture was driven less by community arithmetic and more by survival, power, and access to government. “Most MLAs now believe only the DMK and the TVK have a future,” an AIADMK MLA said. “That is why power became urgent.”

Among the handful of senior leaders still standing firmly with EPS are R B Udhayakumar, O S Manian, Agri Krishnamoorthy, Thalavai Sundaram, and K P Munusamy.

For many in Tamil Nadu politics, the moment carries a deeper irony. Since 2017, the BJP had often been accused by rivals of seeking a weakened, fragmented AIADMK after Jayalalithaa’s death. Yet, EPS survived repeated crises, negotiated aggressively with Delhi, and managed to keep the party structurally intact through nearly a decade of turbulence. On Tuesday morning, that resistance appeared to have finally broken and ironically, on his birthday.