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Palanisami’s elevation: Sasikala’s caste equation MASTERSTROKE
By doing so, Sasikala is looking at shaking off the image that the AIADMK is controlled by her family of Thevars, says Vicky Najappa
One could call it the consolidation of the Gounder community in the AIADMK. The appointment of Edappadi Palanisami as the leader of the AIADMK's legislature party breaks the mould of the party being Thevar-centric.
K A Sengottaiyan the AIADMK's presidium chairman and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai too are from the Gounder community. All this clearly indicates a Gounder dominance in the AIADMK that is today remote controlled by Sasikala from the Bengaluru central jail.
Palanisamy is a powerful leader who represents the Kongu belt in west Tamil Nadu. The move to give more prominence to the Gounder community serves two purposes for Sasikala. The Gounders constitute nearly 20 per cent of the vote bank which would make the AIADMK stronger. Secondly, it helps Sasikala shake off the image that the AIADMK is controlled by her family of Thevars.
Following Jayalalithaa's death, the party was staring at a split. Thambidurai had lobbied hard for more dominance for the Gounder community which has 28 MLAs in the AIADMK. He was upset that despite such a large representation of the Gounders, Sasikala became the party chief and Panneerselvam (also from the Thevar community), the chief minister.
The power equation
The other bone of contention raised by the Gounders was about the lack of ministers in the government. The Gounders had 28 MLAs, but only five ministers. The Thevars on the other hand with 20 MLAs had nine. The Vaniyars with 19 MLAs had five ministers. There were only 3 Dalit ministers despite there being 31 MLAs.
This change in power equation is likely to help the AIADMK strengthen itself in the Kongu belt dominated by the Gounders. As long as Jayalalithaa was alive, these factors did not matter much as the elections were largely won on her name. For Sasikala, such caste engineering was necessary and had she not done so, there would have been a revolt in the Gounder community who had felt sidelined despite producing such a large number of MLAs.
With Palanisami taking over the caste balance would not only be maintained in the party, but also in the ministry as well as the state's administration wings.
OneIndia News
