PMK seems to be out of place anywhere. The party doesn’t fit in any situation. Its ties with the AIADMK, to begin with were unnatural, a square peg in a round hole.
It is therefore no surprise that the Pattali Makkal Katchi decided to snap its ties with the front led by AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa.
All was not well in AIADMK-led front right from the beginning. PMK joined the AIADMK alliance during the Lok Sabha polls in May last. The party drew a blank in all the seven seats it contested. The difference of opinion between the poll partners started soon thereafter.
The immediate provocation is the reported recent permission that Jayalalithaa gave to her party MLA C V Shanmugam, a former MInister to file a case in a court seeking to direct the police to include PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss and his son and former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss in a murder case.
During 2006 assembly polls, one person was killed in an attack near Shanmugam's residence. Police had included Ramadoss and Anbumani as accused in the case, but when DMK came into power; their names were allegedly removed from the FIR.
Recently, Shanmugam filed a case in a local court in Tindivanam praying to include their names in the case. Ramadoss had earlier stated that he would face the case legally. This means that the promised Rajya Sabha seat to the PMK will not be offered and Anbumani may not get a chance to enter the Upper House.
PMK was ousted from the DMK-led front last year following some remarks made by senior PMK leader J Guru against Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and other senior leaders of DMK.
Dr Ramadoss will now be compelled to go back to the DMK front or establish new ties with parties like the DMDK. The next Assembly polls will witness new friends and old foes.