The battle for the AIADMK

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Former Tamil Nadu chief minister and All-India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Jayalalitha has got a friend she doesn't want but can't do without now.

She fell out with Party Deputy General Secretary Thirnavukkarusu, whom her mentor M G Ramachandran once made a minister, when her stars were in the ascendant. Thirnavukkarusu was expected to join the Opposition to bring down the Jayalalitha government, but surprisingly merged his MGR Anna DMK Party with the AIADMK just before last year's general elections. Though some thought he was an MGR loyalist, others felt it was long-term strategy to take over leadership once Jayalalitha paid for her crimes. Thereafter, he proposed to work the party back into power, they said.

So suspicious was Jayalalitha about him, that she churlishly left his name out of her statement thanking partymen who helped the AIADMK recover ground in the recent Pudukottai assembly byelections. Then earlier this week she issued another statement earlier this week, devoting long paragraphs to Thirunavukkasu's loyalty, and sincerity, both in Pudukottai and otherwise.

According to one senior party leader, Jayalalitha's does not want to give Thirunavukkasu, the pride of place he enjoyed before she sacked him eight years ago. "At the same time, she does not have any other secondline leader in the party with as credible an image as he has. Even she lacks credibility," he said.

"With ambitious of becoming Chief Minister one day, Thirunavukkasu possibly expected to inherit the party, expecting Jayalalitha to wilt under the pressure of court cases...," he said. Party sources concede that Thirunavukkasu helped AIADMK give a creditable performance in the Pudukottai byelections.

Thirunavukkasu, who is from the same district, has won three successive elections in his native Arantangi constituency, against strong odds. This includes the 1996 elections, where even Jayalalitha lost in the Bargur constituency by 8000 votes.

Though he has done the AIADMK much good, Thirunavukkasu is still viewed with suspicion by the remnants of Jayalalitha's coterie. But the party cadres are very happy with him and it is to satisfy them that Jayalalitha publicly recognised his contribution to the AIADMK's cause.

While the rest of the leadership was either sulking in Madras or fighting legal cases after the party's electoral debacle, Thirunavukkasu has been touring the state. He is also asking partymen to print pictures of MGR as big as that of Jayalalitha's in their publicity material, a practice that was discontinued during the Jayalalitha regime, expansively promising that Jayalalitha "will not object to it any more." The party leader said he had not discussed the matter with Jayalalitha. "He is daring her to... reverse his directive".

More recently, Thirunavukkasu has begun attacking former party ministers who fawned over Jayalalitha when she was in power and fled when the tide turned. All this has gone down well with the party cadres, forcing Jayalalitha to grit her teeth and shower fulsome praise on an old foe.