The former interim general secretary of the AIADMK (who was sacked earlier on) Sasikala gave yet another call to unity in the party before the state of Tamil Nadu goes into the pending elections.
In her interview with reporters at her home in Poes Garden, Chennai, Sasikala, claimed that all the members of the AIADMK wish to be united by 2026 before the Assembly elections. She stressed the idea that the way the electoral victory of the party may be achieved is to reunite the divisions within the party and create a unified party front. She emphasized that unification should occur before the polls and not after and that bringing back members into the fold was painful but needed to make AIADMK come back.
Senior AIADMK leader K A Sengottaiyan also supported the sentiments of Sasikala and gave a time limit of ten days to the general secretary of the party Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) to take some tangible steps towards reconciliation, failure to which the like-minded leaders would always strive to work together on their own. Ousted leader O Panneerselvam (OPS) and the BJP Tamil Nadu president Nainar Nagenthran were also keen on the unity move, since they realized that, a united AIADMK would be in a position to do away with DMK in the upcoming elections.
Although there have been a lot of calls regarding a merger, EPS has not reacted yet and even some leaders such as T T V Dhinakaran who is also expelled AIADMK have disregarded the idea of having EPS as the Chief Ministerial nominee 2026. Sasikala insisted that she was going to concentrate on bringing back the rule of Amma and crushing the DMK and appealed to the party cadres to proceed in the forgiving spirit and united force.
AIADMK has had poor showings in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, and this has only led to the further division of the party and the need to unite as a single party with the aim of surviving in the Tamil Nadu politics. The call of unification by Sasikala is timely as the workers of the party and the senior leadership pressurizes EPS to explore the option of reconciliation before the 2026 elections.
This turn of events is an indication of an escalation of the debate over the way the AIADMK ought to be headed and unity has become a major theme in the run up to the elections that are going to be held next year.
