The Retinue's Coup

All the norms and guidelines stipulated in the AIADMK party constitution have been violated in the present round of confrontation between Jayalalitha and Thirunavukkarasu. According to the constitution, the general council (GC) can be called only after giving a 15-day notice. In a bid to outwit each other, the rival factions had advanced to dates for their respective GCs almost on a day-to-day basis. First, the Thirunavukkarasu group announced that the general council would meet on June 18. Jayalalitha followed up with an announcement that

her faction would convene the council on June 17. Thirunavukkarasu immediately retaliated by advancing his meeting to June 15. Jayalalitha's countermove was to advance her council meeting to June 14. The battle of dates finally ended when both groups decided to have their respective general council meetings on June 3. But then, on June 2, Jayalalitha moved the Madras High Court seeking an injunction of the proceedings of the rebel group and questioning its validity.

At the crack of dawn, a general council was hurriedly convened by the Thirunavukkarasu faction to circumvent the court proceedings. It expelled Jayalalitha from the post of general secretary and from the primary membership of the AIADMK. The new general secretary was, of course, Thirunavukkarasu. A few hours later, the Jayalalitha-convened GC went one step further by expelling not only Thirunavukkarasu, but also seven MPs and three MILAS. The expulsion, it declared, was "the right decision at the right time". In a significant interpretation of the party rules, the Jayalalitha faction virtually made her the party chief for life. The resolution drafted by former Speaker Sedapatti S. Muthiah said: "though the party general council has powers either to change or repeal the various sections of the party constitution, it cannot expel or replace the AIADMK general secretary. The general secretary of the party is directly elected by the primary members of the party and any change can be effected only through a comprehensive inner-party election".

According to Jayalalitha, 1,103 of the 1,137 GC members had attended the meeting convened by her. And 1,900 AIADMK functionaries out of total 2,003, besides 64 of the 66-member executive council, had attended the meeting. A special resolution used the old Jayalalitha ploy of invoking her gender to garner support. It said: "Jayalalitha is running the party with motherly affection despite great difficulties from her political enemies as well as some treacherous elements within the party. No other leader in the world, particularly a woman, would have faced so many problems, difficulties, and insults like her."

Meanwhile, the Madras High Court held that any decision taken or resolution passed at the GC meeting convened by Thirunavukkarasu on June 3 should not be implemented till June 10, giving them time to respond to the civil suit field by Jayalalitha.

There is a certain level of confusion among the cadres about which way to go. Some of them who are totally disenchanted with Jayalalitha are not willing to switch loyalties because they feel the dissidents do not have the mass base to sustain a political party of the AIADMK's size. Moreover, they doubt Thirunavukkarasu's ability to deliver the 'knock-out punch' to Jayalalitha.

Though the final result of the split depends on the Election Commission's ruling, the Jayalalitha group could be in for big trouble even if the MGR-CREATED 'two leaves' symbol is frozen. While Thirunavukkarasu can easily align with G.K. Moopanar's TMC, whose relationship with the DMK has turned sour, Jayalalitha has no political allies other than the faction-ridden Congress. Moreover, Thirunavukkarasu's biggest asset is his clean image, since he was not with the AIADMK during 1991-96, and therefore not tainted by the corruption charges that Jayalalitha faces.

The present split, coming at a time when a spate of cases have been lodged against Jayalalitha in the newly constituted special court, may well be the beginning of the end of the actress-turned-politician's dramatic political career.