Faction war may freeze AIADMK election symbol

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham split vertically on Tuesday, when the party general secretary Jayalalitha and expelled deputy general secretary S Thirunavukkarasu initiated a series of measures to outwit each other.

With the battlelines clearly drawn and rival factions claiming an absolute majority in the party, the Election Commission may be forced to freeze the AIADMK's two leaves electoral symbol.

''Both leaders are after the symbol as it makes them party founder M G Ramchandran's heir,'' said a former AIADMK leader. ''They want to ensure that the other faction does not get the symbol.''

The scramble for the name and symbol of the AIADMK is born out of the belief that hardcore MGR fans blindly opt for the 'two leaves. While Jayalalitha tries to strengthen the impression that she is MGR's true heir, the rival faction claims she has destroyed the party and the political culture founded by him.

The ranks of the Thirunavukkarasu faction has swelled as the ''rival AIADMK'' aligned with him after his expulsion from the party last fortnight. The ''rival AIADMK'' was created following last year's split in the party, when some leaders walked out on Jayalalitha in an attempt ''to save the party from her dictatorial ways''.

This, however, has brought with it added problems for Thirunavukkarasu. While finding suitable berths for these leaders, he will have to confront criticism for their alleged misdemeanours as Jayalalitha's ministers. Thirunavukkarasu stayed away from Jayalalitha' for most of her reign -- only joining the AIADMK before last year's election -- and thus has a relatively clean image.

For starters, the Thirunavukkarasu loyalists have adopted Jayalalitha's method of seeking individual declarations from general council members in support of his candidature. The idea is to vote out Jayalalitha and vote in Thirunavukkarasu as the general secretary. ''This is as much a precaution against possible raiders from the 'rival AIADMK' as from the Jayalalitha leadership. Thirunavukkarasu would like everyone to know that he is the boss, and does not want to leave anything to chance,'' said the party source.

However, according to intelligence sources, the method too may prove ineffective as the exact number of general council members is still not known.

The Jayalalitha faction puts the strength of the general council at 1,150 which has not been disputed by the other faction. However, as the source pointed out, the figure cannot be over 833, including the 100 nominated members.

As for the support enjoyed by the rival factions, seven of the 14 party members in the Rajya Sabha (the AIADMK drew a blank in last year's Lok Sabha polls) and three of the eight legislators in Tamil Nadu (4), Karnataka (1) and Pondicherry (3) are with Thirunavukkarasu. Efforts are on to rope in at least four more from Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.

''The idea, obviously, is to prove that there has been a vertical split in the party,'' said the party veteran. ''Given the confused state of the general council, where no clear picture is likely to emerge, the verifiable number of legislators could play a crucial role in the Election Commission deciding on rival claims.''

One point that they may go against Jayalalitha is that she has not held organisational elections at all levels. ''She has not completed the organisational elections as described in the party constitution, and the district-level posts were not filled in last year's organisational polls. After the taluk-level polls, it was a quantum jump to the general secretary's election, where Jayalalitha was declared elected, unopposed,'' the leader said, adding that the Election Commission could have reservations on this count.

The Thirunavukkarasu faction too has a lot to explain, what with it having joined hands with the ''rival AIADMK''. Even during the earlier split, leaders of the ''rival AIADMK'' had claimed a majority in the general council, and furnished what they claimed was documentary evidence to that effect. ''With the current split, how will Thirunavukkarasu add new names to the existing list to claim a majority?'' asked the leader.

In this context, the source recalled an earlier instance -- soon after the 1990 split in the AIADMK, under Thirunavukkarasu again -- when dead persons seemed to have come alive. ''And mind you, one of them happened to be a former legislators who died three years before the split.''

All this, however, may have a sobering effect on the Election Commission's decision, said the source. ''With a pile of documentary evidence filed by the respective claimants in earlier splits gathering dust in its offices, the Election Commission can resort to a verification process which may be fruitful, though painstaking.'' But this could also mean, he added, that the party symbol -- which was frozen in the 1980s following differences between the Jayalalitha and Janaki Ramchandran factions of the AIADMK -- may be frozen all over again.