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Journalism of Courage
In an attempt to reassert authority over his party, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder Dr S Ramadoss on Friday convened a meeting of all 230 district secretaries and presidents at his Thailapuram farmhouse near Tindivanam in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district.
However, only 13 turned up, a strikingly low attendance that underscored the deepening unease within the party following an open fallout between Ramadoss and his son and former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.
Ramadoss, 85, downplayed the no-show, attributing it to exhaustion among the cadre following the party’s Chithirai Pournami Youth Conference in Mamallapuram on May 11. “Some of them called me and said they were tired,” he told reporters. “That’s all.”
But party insiders tell a different story. According to them, several district leaders were upset with Ramadoss’s public remarks at the rally, where he criticised Anbumani. What should have been a private family matter, they said, was aired in public, an act many viewed as unnecessarily humiliating to Anbumani and demoralising to the rank and file.
“What Ramadoss spoke on stage should have been settled at home,” said a source with knowledge of discussions in the party. “It felt like a personal attack dressed up as party business.”
The meeting was the first since Ramadoss ousted Anbumani as party president, naming him “working president” and reclaiming control under the title of “founder-president”. Despite claiming that a formal invitation was sent to Anbumani — “he may be on the way,” Ramadoss said — Anbumani did not attend.
The rift appears to be both personal and strategic. Anbumani has favoured a continued alliance with the NDA, while his father is said to be considering a return to either of the Dravidian majors, DMK or AIADMK. The split in vision has only widened the generational and ideological chasm between the two.
Ramadoss, however, has brushed aside talk of an internal feud. “There are no factions in the PMK. You find groups only at music concerts. The lion’s legs have not weakened, and neither has its aggression,” he said.
Setting the tone for the road ahead, he declared a target of winning 50 seats in the 2026 Assembly polls, claiming, “I have taught them how to win elections even while lying down.”
However, with only a fraction of the party’s district leadership by his side, and a growing perception that his speech at the rally crossed a line, the veteran leader’s display of control appeared more fragile than before.
